


in the summer silence

by tanightt



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Danganronpa Fusion, Angst, Attempted Murder, Basketball, Blood and Injury, Body Horror, Class Trials, Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, KUROBAS x DANGANRONPA, Multi, Murder, Murder Mystery, Trauma, Unreliable Narrator, bc how could there not be w these idiots, killing game, killing games leave ppl messed up yknow, you don’t need to play/watch dangan to read !
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24927268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanightt/pseuds/tanightt
Summary: The remaining students, some crying and whimpering or solemn and unruffled, begin to investigate [#¥*£•}’s dead body, horribly and unnecessarily displayed in front of the statue like an ornament, wondering where it all went wrong.Wondering just which of them had decided to kill their friend to escape the island.progress : deadly life.
Relationships: Aida Riko/Kiyoshi Teppei, Aomine Daiki/Kagami Taiga, Midorima Shintarou/Takao Kazunari, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 23
Kudos: 28





	1. prologue i.

**Author's Note:**

> Reference for those unfamiliar with Danganronpa -
> 
> Hope’s Peak Academy: prestigious academy that enrolls students based on two criteria: they are already attending high school and they are the very best at what they do. Most of the enrolled students are Ultimates.
> 
> Ultimate: titles given to the very best students. Talent scouts visit different parts of the world to gather the very best students of any particular field. These students, by someway proving their worth in their specialized field, may be scouted to become Ultimates. The best of the best. Also known as Super High School Levels, but that’s a mouthful so it’s typically localized/referred to as Ultimates.
> 
> (ex. the Ultimate Magician could also be known as the Super High School Level Magician, and would be a high school student who proved to be the best magician of his class.

With a sharp inhale, Takao Kazunari opens his eyes to nothing. 

His mind is empty, thoughts at a blank. How is it that he’s awake, yet seeing nothing? 

Kazunari first wonders if he got so drunk he was experiencing a visual blackout, but then remembers that the only time he ever had alcohol was sipping his mother’s wine, so that was out of the question.  _What’s the hell’s happening, then?_

He can’t bring himself to move. Even if he wanted to, he wouldn’t be able to get much done, as he could feel walls pressing against his shoulders. The walls and floor felt slightly cushioned, however. Kazunari has no idea what to make of this. For someone who had been gifted with  _sight_ since he was born, suddenly being thrown into complete darkness scared him so much he nearly fell back into unconsciousness before he heard the voices. 

He couldn’t make out what was being said, but there were definitely several people outside of whatever he was in. Kazunari questioned whether or not he should try pushing the darkness around at random when the decision was made for him. 

Light hit his eyes hard, forcing his face to scrunch hard. Covering his eyes with a hand and sitting up, and damn his back  _hurts._ Kazunari squints and sees the whole room. 

The whole  _room full of coffins _.

Kazunari looked back down in disconnected horror to see he had also been inside a coffin this whole time. 

_ Am I dead? What kind of afterlife is this? _

“Are you alright?” 

Now that he had been let out, Kazunari’s  sight went to work. There were 6 people out and about in the room. 16 coffins took up random intervals of floor space like some sick game of checkers, all different sizes and shapes and even  _color_. He could see his own coffin was silver. There was nothing else. No shelves, no windows, nothing but artificial lights and coffins, and someone was right next to him.

Someone is right-

“...Excuse me?” A touch to his shoulder had him jumping, and suddenly the rest of his brain caught up. 

Kazunari was greeted by bright blue hair and big eyes. Despite the boy’s face being blank, those eyes still felt like were seeing through him. “What’s...” Coughing—why did it feel like he hadn’t used his voice in a while? “... what’s going on?”

The boy blinked, holding out a hand, and wow, he even had on a blue cape. Adorable. “Everyone has woken up inside of one of these coffins, with no recollection of how they got here, presumably. You seem unharmed. Are you another Ultimate?” 

Ultimate.

Kazunari accepts his hand, letting himself be pulled up. He groans at the sore muscles. “Man, my neck’s killing me. Not the best place to sleep.” Gaining a tiny but still-there smile from the blue boy, Kazunari continues. “I’m  Takao Kazunari , the  Ultimate Gymnast.” 

“Though these circumstances do not seem to be in our favor, it is nice to meet you, Takao-kun. My name is  Kuroko Tetsuya. I am the  Ultimate Magician.” That explained the long cape that billowed out to the floor behind him. Kazunari couldn’t help but feel he had heard this name before. 

“Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“No, unfortunately. However, some of us are theorizing we have been kidnapped.” Kazunari froze.  Kidnapped? It makes sense. _I certainly have no idea where we are, and I definitely didn’t put myself inside a casket._ That made the situation even more frightening.  What do they want with us? “Though, the same person who said that also claimed our abduction was by aliens, so who knows if there is any merit to his words.” 

“So matter-of-fact,” Kazunari chuckles, still unsettled.  How was he still completely poker faced? “Is everybody else who came out of a coffin an Ultimate too?”

“Yes. 14 others, aside from you and I. It is quite suspicious. Outside of this room is quite strange as well-“

“Oi, there’s another one?!” 

Kazunari looked behind Kuroko to see fiery red & black hair and strange forked eyebrows to match. Above his grey sweatshirt was a plain silver necklace- the only interesting thing about it was the ring weighing it down. He had an barely there accent in his words. 

“Yes, Kagami-kun,” Kuroko said politely. “There are sixteen caskets. Therefore sixteen people.” 

“I know that!” Kagami said hotly, embarrassed. “I didn’t know anyone was still inside one of those things! I just thought everyone else went outside or somethin’!” 

“Or something,” whispered Kuroko, eyes twinkling. Kazunari snickered back. “That is  Kagami Taiga, the  Ultimate Firefighter. Kagami-kun, this is Takao Kazunari, the Ultimate Gymnast.” 

“Nice to meet you, dude.” Kagami grinned and offered a handshake, Kazunari returning both sentiments. “Glad to see you’re alright. Alright as we can be, at least. Assumin’ you don’t know what’s happenin’ either? ....Well, I guess sittin’ around in here ain’t gonna solve it.”

Kuroko agreed, indicating the door. “I was one of the first to wake up. I only took a glance, but outside this room is... disconcerting.” Kuroko gave no indication of truly meaning these words, from his lack of expression and inflection. Kagami wasn’t having it.

“C’mon, man, you can at least pretend to sound bothered!” 

Kazunari laughed. Now that he had adjusted a bit, he could act like his easygoing self, if only to push down the unease clawing his stomach. “You wake up like this everyday? Magician life, right?”

“Nonsense,” he denied, but he held a gentle smile. “There are some magic tricks that include being trapped, but none without my knowing. I am just as affected as you.” 

“I get it, I get it. Say, we should probably look around outside again. Not much in this gross ass room. See if we can find out if this is serious or some dumbass prank.” Kagami turned to Kazunari. “Everyone’s pretty worried. No one remembers coming here, and we definitely don’t remember getting inside some goddamn coffins. We all got surprise amnesia, or somethin’.” Kagami scoffed, and with a sudden clap to Kazunari and Kuroko’s shoulders, the squeal of the firefighter jacket tied around his waist like nails on a chalkboard as he stalked to the door like a man on a mission. 

“It seems Kagami-kun has made a choice without even asking us,” said Kuroko, though whether he was actually bothered was unclear. Kazunari wasn’t entirely sure what to think of him, but figured anyone with a such big blue eyes and a tiny little cape couldn’t be too bad. “I believe you are the last one to wake up. You should probably familiarize yourself to the others in here before joining us outside.” 

“Oh sure, I see when I’m not wanted. Go hang out with Kagami! It’s barely been five minutes and I’m already being abandoned!” Kazunari said dramatically, pouting for extra effect. 

Kuroko just shook his head. “You are quite the character, Takao-kun. To be able to maintain such a positive attitude while our future remains unclear... I believe you will get along with someone else I’ve met quite well...” With that, Kuroko’s lengthy cape made it appear as though he floated towards Kagami, who was in conversation with a very good looking guy with a beauty mark near his one visible eye. He also had a necklace with a ring on it, just like Kagami. He wondered if they know each other before this... situation. For some reason, both men flinched violently when Kuroko reached them. 

Kazunari huffed, turning to see a mousey boy who seemed to curl in on himself like a roly-poly, making him look smaller than he actually was. His white sweats were littered with ink marks, and he clutched a some kind of notebook to him closely. He squeaked when Kazunari caught him staring. Kazunari grinned at the opportunity.

“Enjoying the view?” He added a wink for good measure. Another squeak. 

“I’m sorry! I-I shouldn’t be staring! So-so-so sorry!” 

Kazunari laughed and decided to tone it down. Just a little. “It’s quite alright. Just draw a picture of me next time, it’ll last longer! I’ll even model for you, Mister...?” 

The other looked down to his notebook worryingly. "How did y-you know I d-draw?” As if he wasn’t holding a sketch pad. “M-my name is S- Sakurai Ryou.  Ultimate Mangaka. Oh!" He seemed to panic, gripping his sleeves tightly. "I should have let you go first! Y-you probably don't care about me! Or my title! I'm so s-s-sorry!"

Kazunari blinked and put his hands out placatingly. "Hey! Hey! It's okay! All good! I do care! I asked after all, haha. I'm Takao Kazunari, Ultimate Gymnast." This Sakurai guy was really nervous.  I wonder if he’s always like this, or if he’s nervous because he knows something...

“O-okay... that’s r-really-“ 

“Damn Satsuki, get offa me!”

“Dai-chan, stop being so stubborn!” 

Kazunari used Hawkeye to see what was happening while still facing Sakurai. 

A pretty pink-haired girl clad in a blue skirt and loose green sweater that did nothing to hide her rather voluptuous figure, fighting with a blue-haired dark-skinned boy dressed in a dark blazer and pants that might as well been for his knees for how low they sagged, showing off navy boxers. 

The boy was firmly holding his pants down as the girl futilely attempted to drag them back up, scolding him all the while. 

She saw Kazunari and Sakurai move closer out of the corner of her eye and smiled apologetically. "Ah, sorry about him. That’s  Aomine Daiki. He wouldn't know manners if they beat him in basketball." Kazunari swore that name was familiar to him too, just like Kuroko. He just couldn’t put his finger on why.

Aomine scowled. "The only one-"

"Yeah, yeah, hush up. Anyways, it's a pleasure to meet you! I'm  Momoi Satsuki! The  Ultimate Manager!” Kazunari and Sakurai introduced themselves. Momoi smiled, then huffed at Aomine. “Dai-chan, do you need me to introduce you again? He’s the Ultimate-“

“Stop stealing my introductions, Satsuki, I’m not some dumbass kid.” Aomine also had an accent to his words, but unlike Kagami—whose accent seemed to be due to some unfamiliarity with the language—his sounded more like laziness. It was more of a careless drawl of someone who couldn’t be bothered.“ Aomine Daiki,  Ultimate Basketball Player -” 

“No,” Momoi interrupted, rolling her eyes, “he’s the  Ultimate Hunter -“ 

“Shut the hell up, Satsuki! I’m the Ultimate Bas-“

“-this is why you can’t be trusted to do your own introductions-“

“-that title is stupid, I didn’t choose that shit-“

“-you don’t get to choose your own title, that defeats the whole point of talent scouts!”

“Wow! You hunt down basketball players for sport?” Kazunari butted in unhelpfully. Sakurai looked horrified. 

They continued as if Kazunari hadn’t said a word. From how familiarly they addressed one another it wasn’t far fetched to assume they already knew each other before this incident. Kazunari didn’t know whether he should try interfering again or if he should just let it be. Sakurai looked near to fainting, but the beauty marked man near the door looked utterly unbothered. At Kazunari’s eye contact, he smiled.

“I wouldn’t worry about ‘em,” the male smirked, “they been goin’ at it since they found each otha’.” 

Kazunari, eager to extract himself from the quarrel between Momoi and Aomine that had somehow changed into arguing about chest sizes, bid them farewell—as if they were paying attention—and approached the attractive male standing sentry, gently grabbing Sakurai by the wrist to move him before he actually did faint. Sakurai made haste to follow.

The fellow near the door smiled pleasantly. “ Himuro Tatsuya, Ultimate Billiards Player . Pleased ta’ meet ‘ya.” Himuro’s accent, though disturbingly similar, was severely more prominent than Kagami’s, both in dialect and in subtle hesitance with the language. Kazunari had no doubts that, with the necklaces and the accents, that Himuro and Kagami were previously acquainted. 

Kazunari introduced himself. “Have they really been arguing this whole time?”

“Might as well have. First thing I heard when I woke up, ain’t no mistaking that. Been goin’ on and off for a while.” 

“They’re something, that’s for sure. Are you guarding the door?”

Himuro shook his head gently. “I’m just tryna be the last one out, y’know? Kuroko went ‘round earlier to make sure everyone was outta the caskets, but I’m just makin’ sure no one gets left by ‘emselves. Who wants to be alone in a room like this?” 

He made a good point. Sakurai definitely didn’t seem like he would handle being left alone in here well, considering how he was still obviously trembling. “T-that’s very k-kind of you, H-Himuro-san!” 

Himuro blinked, and rubbed his neck bashfully. “You don’t gotta... you can just call me Himuro. From the looks of it, we’ll be here a long time. Too long for some fancy-pancy formalities.”

Kazunari hoped his suspicions weren’t true. Kuroko has said it was likely they had been kidnapped, because why else would a bunch of Ultimates be put into coffins with no recollection of how they got there?

“W-what do you me-mean too long for f-f-f-formalities?” 

“Why don't y’all see for yourselves?” And with that, Himuro pulled the door open, and the brightness outside was even worse than when he first opened his eyes. Pressing a hand to his eyes until he saw colors, Kazunari followed Himuro outside.

While Kazunari’s sight—lovingly dubbed as _Hawkeye_ from his sister—allowed him to have a ridiculously large field of view in any room he was in so long as he focused on using it. Outside, however—he would need about ten Hawkeyes to see all of this.

First was the heat. The heat instantly enveloped and breathed humidity into all in its path, unforgiving. Sand, as far as the eye could see, pale and blinding against the sun burning bright and horrible, glimmering something fierce upon the ocean surrounding it, very clearly an island. Buildings were littered about the island, one even half sunk into sand. A little bit away, he could see a multitude of what looked like picnic tables, a faint outline seated there. 

“Holy hell,” Kazunari breathed out, subconsciously snapping the headband wrapped around his wrist. “Where are we?”

“Still no idea,” Himuro sighed. “Nobody recognizes where we are. Looks like a nice vacation spot, if we came by choice.” 

“T-this place is h-h-huge... what are we s-sup-supposed to do?” Sakurai looked even worse now that they had come outside. “I mean, why would somebody ki-kid-ki-“

“I gotcha,” Kazunari said, putting a gentle hand on Sakurai’s shoulder, frowning at the way he flinched. “Doesn’t make sense for someone to take a bunch of Ultimates and put them on an island.” 

“Right,” Himuro agreed. “We’re hopin’ that somebody’ll come on by soon to tell us what the hell’s goin’ on, in person or through them speakers.” Looking up, Kazunari could see what he was talking about. Stuck in the sand at seemingly random intervals were a bunch of speakers on poles. 

“Maybe someone will make an announcement. Tell us this is a weird field trip or something.” Kazunari briefly frowned. “It would be strange to have a field trip before the school year even started though...” 

“Ain’t that the damn truth,” said Himuro, going back towards the door. “If you’re gonna meet the others, I know Kasamatsu is hangin’ ‘round at them picnic tables, and Kuroko and Kagami went off to the cafe.” Having no idea where the cafe was just yet, Kazunari gave his thanks and shuffled to the picnic tables through the sand. The distance wasn’t too large—there was just _so much damn sand._

“My sh-shoes are getting sand in th-them,” Sakurai stuttered as he followed, looking over at Kazunari warily as if he was expected to be sent away. He would do no such thing. 

“Perks of wearing sandals,” Kazunari chuckled. “You must be pretty hot in that hoodie, too.” 

He was that much happier he was wearing a loose orange sweater and matching pants, though his leotard underneath that was certainly not helping him cool off. He knew it was pretty atrocious-looking to wear one solid color only,  especially bright colors like orange, but thought it was too funny to really care. 

Still, he’d prefer these layers to a uniform.

He had been outside for less than 5 minutes and was already starting to sweat. He absently wondered why none of the other high schoolers he ran into this far had on a gakuran. The closest to a uniform he had seen was Aomine, but even that looked more like a personal choice rather than a required one. 

How did a whole bunch of high school level Ultimates get here, if not through school? What were they missing? Was this really some kidnapping for ransom?

“Well, it is r-really warm in this... n-not that I’m c-complaining or anything! Y-you’re probably h-hot too! S-sorry!”

“Hey, no need to apologize for calling me hot,” Kazunari winked. Sakurai looked close to fainting again. 

“He said  probably hot, actually,” snarked the boy sitting at a picnic table with an umbrella, as they had gotten close enough for him to hear. “Jury’s still out on that one.” 

“Ouch,” Kazunari smiles easily, “that’s cold.” 

“Th-that’s not what I m-meant!” Sakurai gasped, horrified. “I-I meant temperature hot! N-not that you aren’t—Y-you’re very attractive! A-and you are too!” he turned quickly to the other. “I was j-just trying-“ 

“It’s okay, man!” Kazunari lightly knocked Sakurai with his elbow. “We’re just teasing you!” 

“Yeah... didn’t know you’d get so worked up. Sorry, man. The name’s  Kasamatsu Yukio. I’m the  Ultimate Kickboxer.” 

After candidly introducing both of them—as Sakurai still seemed to be understanding the concept of being teased—Kazunari asked if he knew anything about what was happening, receiving the same answers as everyone else—no clue.

“Woke up in those damn coffins, talked to people, looked around, same as you. All that and still no clue what the hell’s going on or how the hell I even got here.” Kasamatsu started looking menacing. “If this turns out to be some sick prank or something stupid like that,I’m gonna kick their ass.” He cracked his glove-covered knuckles, though his intimidating aura was somewhat hampered by the adorable scattering of freckles across his face and arms, revealed by his tank-top. 

“Scary,” Kazunari said flippantly, but was still secretly glad he wasn’t on the other side of that temper. He had no doubts that despite Kasamatsu’s appearance, he could still actually kick his ass. Kazunari briefly focused on using his Hawkeye. There were only about four picnic tables spread out in the sand, providing a nice view of the ocean a little ways ahead, waves moving calmly onto the sand but harshly onto the dock built in its presence. There was a lone figure sitting on its edge. “For all our sakes, I hope it is actually prank or hazing ritualrather than something worse. Who’s over there?” 

“Yeah, I guess so,” Kasamatsu acquiesced, “better than any of that kidnapping shit Kise was yapping about. Over there on the dock? I’m pretty sure he said his name was Imayoshi Sho... Sho-something. Definitely Imayoshi though. Real weird.”

“His personality, or his name?” 

“Yes.” 

Laughing once more, Kazunari waved and set off to meet this Imayoshi, Sakurai following along loyally with a timid goodbye of his own. Kazunari wondered why Sakurai seemed to prefer staying around him so quickly. Or he maybe was here because he was too scared to do any introductions by himself. Whatever the case, Kazunari liked to think they were already friends.

Getting closer to the water, he could see the dock wasn’t that high off the sand. If only had five steps to get on it, making Kazunari question it’s worth. The tide was thankfully low, and they managed to approach the dock without risking their shoes. The male sitting on the dock’s very edge watched them approach with a strange smile on his face, the light glaring on his glasses. 

“Isn’t this weather lovely,” the male purred, wearing all black beneath the angry sun. Despite this, the man didn’t appear to be sweating at all. “Too hot for most fish to bite, perhaps. Too close to the shore, as well.” 

Something about this guy rubbed Kazunari the wrong way, though he had no idea why. He tried to keep it at bay.

“I guess even fish have limits, huh? You the Ultimate Fisher or something?” 

“Or something,” he chuckled. “Though fishing is a fond hobby of mine, I am referred to as the  Ultimate Psychoanalyst, Imayoshi Shouichi.”

Maybe that’s why Kazunari felt slightly put off. He very much disliked it when people tried to analyze him beyond his performances. It almost always felt too condescending, even for someone as easygoing as him. Imayoshi’s smile grew, as if he were somehow privy to these thoughts. 

“Th-that’s a r-really cool talent,” Sakurai said after they introduced themselves back, clearly not sharing the same sentiments as Kazunari. “Y-you must be really s-smart then. Do you k-kn-know what’s happening to us?”

Imayoshi tilted his head back, and without the sun hitting his glasses at this angle, Kazunari thinks that his eyes are closed. Sakurai took in a sharp breath. “I certainly have my suspicions... though I believe they are best kept with me, at the moment.” And with a final sly smirk, Imayoshi turned back to face the ocean once more, signaling the quick end of their conversation on a cryptic note. 

When it was clear he wasn’t interested in conversing, Kazunari turned back to walk along the beach in hopes of running into more people or reaching one of the buildings. The island itself was much smaller than it seemed when they first left the confines of that room—if he squinted, he could see what looked like the other end of the island from here. 

A little bit inland, Kazunari could see a concrete path leading from the beach to the buildings he spotted earlier. He steered toward it as Sakurai vibrated excitedly. 

“D-did you see Imayoshi-san’s eyes? Th-they were closed! Like the type of mysterious ch-characters who only o-open their eyes when they’re serious, or about to do something b-badass! But in real life!” 

This is definitely his mangaka side freaking out , Kazunari noted.  He’s so excited he isn’t stuttering as horribly as usual. “ I sure did,” Kazunari laughed, not unkindly. “He definitely was one hell of a character.”

“I-it’s amazing! How does he see? D-does he see? Does he just have them closed when p-people are around? Why does he wear glasses if h-his eyes are always closed?” Humming to show he was listening, Kazunari was happy to let Sakurai come out of his shell. He couldn’t bring himself to fully participate—not just yet. 

As they moved onto the concrete path, Kazunari could see different buildings in front of them. If he looked further away to his left, he could see the dreary gray walls of the building they first woke up in, looking desolate and very much out of place with the rest of the island. 

The sand around the path tapered off into grass, the nonsensical mixture of green blades and pale grains. Eventually, the sand gave into grass on the sides, spreading out green up until the picnic tables on the far left where Kasamatsu was left behind, and the strange white building on the right. Why that building is on the sand, unlike the buildings up ahead that looked to be on firm concrete, was to be determined. It was partially sunken into sand.

Farther up the path was a concrete plaza with four buildings surrounding it. Kuroko and Kagami were standing further ahead, talking to a tall man with purple hair beneath a sign reading  BB Cafe . 

Kazunari decided to go to the closest building in the sand. Looking closer, it had a red cross on its design, making it more likely it was a hospital. There was a man in front of it.

Green hair and glasses. Kazunari had to wonder if there was some type of hair dye celebration he missed while he was unconscious. Even stranger was the matching green frog held in his hand. Kazunari noticed his fingers were taped. He was also draped in what looked like a long white lab coat, making it easier to guess what his talent was. He had a certain air about him, one of assuredness.

“Hmph. What a nuisance.”

While Kazunari assumed he was talking about the coat—because he’s felt how thick those doctor coats are and there’s no way he wasn’t burning up inside that thing—all of the people he’d met so far were some strange individuals. He wouldn’t be surprised if he was complaining about fishing capabilities like Imayoshi. 

Kazunari skipped towards him, Sakurai hot on his tail. “What’s a nuisance?” 

The green haired man fully turned to regard them and wow, damn.  His eyes are green too .  Look at those eyelashes .  This dude looks ethereal . “There is an infirmary, yet the door remains steadfastly locked. A voice from the speakers claimed it was not ready to be opened, not that it would matter. The door is half-buried. The only way to get in would be a window. What is the point of an infirmary, if not to be ready for injury at any moment.” Kazunari wondered, not for the first time, why these people seemed so out of touch. Why the hell was he more upset about an infirmary being closed than the fact they appeared to have been kidnapped and taken to an island.

“Maybe you could ask Kuroko to lock pick a roof entrance or something,” Kazunari said airily. “Seems like a skill the Ultimate Magician might have.” 

“Perhaps, though I doubt Kuroko will be able to break into every building here,” announced a smooth new voice, rounding the side of the building. Kazunari wondered why everyone here seemed to be so into dramatic entrances and introductions. “None of them are currently open, as I’m sure you know.” 

Everything about this man exuded importance. The careful way his red hair was styled, the way his very walk oozed confidence. He was dressed in a blood red yukata. A second black kimono was draped across his shoulders, arms not inside, the black sleeves flowing gracefully in the humid wind. Kazunari, as he went about introducing himself and Sakurai, couldn’t help but feel slightly uncomfortable around this guy. Something about those red eyes specifically, as if he was seeing inside your brain, figuring out everything that made you tick with just a brief glance. 

“Whoa,” Kazunari continued, as Sakurai seemed just as enthralled with the redhead as he was with Imayoshi, “you guys look real professional to just be in high school.”

“Indeed, though that comes with my position. I am  Akashi Seijuurou, ” he replied, with a vague inclination of his head, “the Ultimate Shogi Player. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Takao, Sakurai.” His surname sounded very familiar in a business way, so Kazunari figured he was related to some type of business tycoon.

“Yes,” the green haired male coughed, as if embarrassed he had not introduced himself yet. “Midorima Shintarou,  the Ultimate Doctor.”  Kazunari couldn’t help but notice that Midorima had not looked him in the eye once. Before he could say anything, a loud voice boomed through the speakers. 

“ **Ahem, ahem, testing again!** **Everyone can hear me again? Students, please make your way to the plaza within 10 minutes! I repeat, students, make your way to the plaza within 10 minutes and everything will be explained to you, no problemo**!” The sound briefly turned into static before being silenced entirely. 

Akashi nodded. “I suppose I don’t need to ask either of you for information, then.” 

“I have a r-really bad feeling ab-about this,” Sakurai whimpered.

“That is only reasonable,” Midorima assured, “in such an environment. I, for one, intend to demand for an immediate release, regardless of whatever half-hearted explanation this person is intending to give.” 

“The acquisition of 16 Ultimates is bound to bring attention from the world. Regardless of intentions, there is no way for them to keep us here, whether we find a way to leave ourselves or not.” 

“I guess we better hear what this weirdo’s got to explain to us,” Kazunari sighed, walking, “though I’d love to hear what kind of explanation they think justifies this.”

“Ma-maybe it’s a really mean i-initiation?” 

“That would be the most favorable case scenario, wouldn’t it?” And with little other words between them, the quartet walked towards the large plaza, Akashi leading the herd with pure confidence in his gait.


	2. prologue ii.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kazunari meets the last of the island goers, and a special announcement is made. Reaction vary significantly.

Reaching the plaza with the sun thankfully beginning to set, Kazunari could see Kagami waving at them before a different building, with Kuroko and two unknown people next to him. Exchanging a look with Sakurai, they easily excused themselves from Akashi and Midorima, making their way over to them.

Kagami and co. were in front of a building labeled  Vorpal Swords Gym. The other man, in his yukata, with soft brown eyes and hair to match, smiled so warmly at their approach Kazunari was tempted to give him a hug already. The man raised a hand in greeting. “Hey! Glad to see more people up and running. I’m  Kiyoshi Teppei, Ultimate Hanafuda Player. It’s very good to meet you. Are you feeling okay?” 

“Oh stop it,” said the girl in a navy pullover with a sailor necktie and skirt. She, like Kasamatsu, had freckles, but only on her cheeks and nose. Kasamatsu’s were everywhere. “You’re laying it on way too thick.”

“What,” laughed Kiyoshi, rubbing his neck. “Is it wrong to be friendly?” 

She grinned, shaking her head fondly. “Only you would be focused on being so friendly to everybody in a situation like this.” Looking over at him, Kazunari got a weird sensation that he was once more being looked  through . Her eyes widened. “Damn. I can’t fully _Scan_ you right now, but I can tell you’re some kind of athlete, right?” 

“Ah, yeah,” Kazunari smiled. He had no idea what she meant by scan, but maybe it could be explained by her talent. “I’m Takao Kazunari, the Ultimate Gymnast.” 

“Gymnast!” She said eagerly, stepping closer. “Really?! That’s a good specimen! Take off your shirt.” 

...huh?

“Ah, Riko-san...” Kuroko said hesitantly.

She swerved over towards Sakurai, who looked close to screaming. “You don’t look too bad either. What’re you? Off with your shirt too, mouse!”

“M-m-mouse?!” 

“Our shirts?” Kazunari rose his eyebrows, not entirely bothered. “Can I at least get a date first?”

Before the girl could answer, Kiyoshi cut in, dropping a hand on her shoulder. “Riko,” he said, a little desperately, “ _please_ stop asking everyone you meet here to take their shirt off.” Oh, so this isn’t a first offense? Did she react like this to Kuroko and Kagami? “You haven’t even introduced yourself.”

“Hey,” Riko huffed, crossing her arms. “I didn’t ask that Hanamiya guy. I don’t even want to _consider_ that.” Shuddering, Riko shook her head. “I’m  Aida Riko,  the Ultimate Personal Trainer. Now can I ask them to take off their shirts?” Kiyoshi sighed with the pain of a man used to this type of behavior, and Riko chuckled.

Kagami laughed from beneath the gym’s overhang, looking extremely,  extremely sweaty. Very understandable—Kagami’s lower half was clad in protective firefighter gear, boots and all. His jacket was at least still tied around his waist, torso in a thin white T-shirt that was practically drenched in perspiration. Protection against fire unfortunately meant nothing against the wrath of the sun.

Surprisingly, it was Sakurai who spoke up. “Um. Aida-san-“

“No no no,” she said, rolling her eyes. “None of that ‘Aida-san’ crap, that’s my dad. _Ew_. You can call me Riko-san, or something—just not Aida.”

“R-riko-san, then... who is Hanamiya? I don’t t-think we’ve run into him yet... sorry f-for asking!” 

“You should be sorry,” Riko muttered, no bite in her words, “that guy really gives me the creeps.”

“Riko!” Kiyoshi admonished, though he did not try and refute her claim. 

“Yeah, Riko,” sang a voice in the lull, “why so mean to someone you’ve just met?” The voice came from another building nearby—labeled  Jabberwock Hotel. It looked as though he had never been outside a day in his life, with how sickly pale he was. Very greasy looking black hair that nearly touched his shoulders and horribly bushy eyebrows—even worse than Kiyoshi’s. As he talked, Kazunari could see something glimmering in his mouth. For some reason, the atmosphere felt more tense the second he opened his mouth. Kuroko and Kagami both stayed quiet. This man felt more uncomfortable than Akashi and Imayoshi combined. “I’m a little hurt. You’re already ruining my first impressions, and I haven’t even said anything.”

Clearing her throat, clearly embarrassed that he had overheard, Riko turned away mumbling a half-baked apology. Regardless, it got him to smile. “I am  Hanamiya Makoto. Please,” he purred, “take care of me.”

Hanamiya didn’t even mention his talent, his green and black jumpsuit indicating nothing specific, but honestly Kazunari wasn’t too interested in knowing. He knew he shouldn’t react this way—Kazunari was never that judgmental at least outwardly—but something felt very _wrong_ about the way this guy spoke and slinked around on the hotel steps like a snake, or spider. 

Cautiously introducing himself back made Hanamiya smile more. “Well, I guess I’ve ruined your get together. Mostly everyone is here for the announcement anyways... better get in those last introductions while you can...” Cackling softly, he plopped down on the hotel steps, basking in the last rays of the diminishing sun, eyes moving towards the other students making their way into the plaza. 

“...right,” said Kuroko. Riko and Sakurai flinched as if they forgot he was there. “Have you met Murasakibara-kun yet? I will introduce you to him before the meeting starts. Please stay here and cool off, Kagami-kun.” 

“Don’t worry,” Kiyoshi assured, still staring hard at Hanamiya, “we’ll take care of him.” Whether he was talking about Hanamiya or Kagami was unclear.

Eager to move away, Kazunari followed Kuroko across the plaza to BB Cafe—Sakurai, with a timid goodbye Kazunari had to assure him was totally okay, hesitantly chose to hide beneath the overhang with Kagami—where a very long purple haired man was laying on his side directly on the floor, head resting on some equally purple fabric. He was very miserably eating a chocolate bar, with an assortment of candies melting through their wrappers in front of him.

“Murasakibara-kun,” Kuroko scolded softly, “please get up. The floor is dirty. Your apron will get soiled.” And yes, wow, that was a purple apron he had bunched up beneath his head. The man groaned but showed no signs of movement. Kuroko sighed and moved forward to help him up. “This is  Murasakibara Atsushi,  the Ultimate Pastry Chef. ” 

“Ne.... I can introduce myself... the sun’s just too draining...” This man spoke even more lazily than Aomine, something previously thought to be impossible. Maybe being that tall made it harder for words to travel through your body.

“ Murasakibara Atsushi........Ultimate Pastry Chef....”  he repeated, determined to do it himself apparently, “ nice to meet you, I guess...” 

“I believe Murasakibara-kun is also disappointed right now, because the cafe is looked like every other building here.”

“I’m gonna starve to death...” 

“Aw man,” Kazunari laughed, finally moving to help Kuroko lift the purple giant. Up close, he could see Murasakibara had a lot of acne, likely brought upon by his excessive amount of candies. “But you have a sick stash of sweets, though!”

“It’s too hot for them,” Murasakibara said pitifully, reminding Kazunari of a child, “they’re melting like me...” 

Kuroko, with an abundance of patience in his voice, stated “the sun is going down, Murasakibara-kun. You and your candies will be safe soon.” 

“Yeah!” Kazunari added unhelpfully. “Candy protection squad!” 

That at least got the man-child to smile. Now that he was fully upright, Kazunari worried he would break his neck trying to look up at him, he was  beyond tall. His head was literally at the cafe’s doorway. 

Wanting to give his neck a rest—this much bending could not be good for it after getting cricked inside a coffin for however long—he turned away from Murasakibara and wow. 

That man absolutely belonged in the sun. 

He looked like he’d walked right off the cover of a magazine, with a nice brown cardigan that appeared to have nothing under it, if the exposed top of his chest was any indication. Nice blond hair, piercing golden eyes-  _what’s up with damn near everyone’s eyes_ , he wonders offhandedly- and he would’ve been perfect except. 

Except.

He had a fucking  trench coat and  _fedora_ .

He even had the  nerve to tip it towards Kazunari when they made eye contact. He couldn’t decide whether he was amused or terrified. The only saving grace was that the trench coat was over his arm. He was certainly still crazy, though.

He laughed anyways. “Wow, dude! Don’t tell me you’re the Ultimate Model!” 

The blond grinned back. “Nope, but that’s a close enough guess! My name’s  Kise Ryouta! Who are you? Actually, wait, let me guess yours too!”

“I don’t know about that,” Kazunari tittered, knowing his outermost outfit didn’t really give any hints. “If you’re not the Ultimate Model, what are you?”

“Oh... well, I guess i’m close enough to that. But specifically, I’m the  Ultimate Male Glamour Model. It’s a real mouthful though, so I mostly just go by Ultimate Model.” Despite the smile on his face, his tone was off, as if he wasn’t fully invested in those words. “Anyways... are you the Ultimate Nightlight? Cause-“ 

“I’m your light in the darkness?” 

“Yes yes yes!” Kise held up his hand for a high-five, which was eagerly reciprocated.

“It was just as I feared then,” Kuroko lamented blankly. “There’s two of them.”

“But seriously, your outfit is bright!” 

“ **Ahem! Ahem**!” A voice rang out suddenly. He traced the source to the four speakers places around the edges of the square.

“ **Is everybody here? All of my lovely students safe and sound? Okay, hold onto yourdogs and horses!** ” And with that, started the earthquake. 

The concrete began quaking violently with the sound of shifting earth. Kazunari stumbled and threw out his arms for balance. A few people—namely Sakurai, squealing and Kasamatsu, angrily—began freaking out. Kagami immediately began barking out orders to move as far away from the buildings as possible at risk of them toppling, and most of the others did not hesitate to follow his advice. Hanamiya barely moved from his perch on the hotel steps. Before Kagami could begin herding them into the grass, the center of the plaza sink away in a perfect circle. There was a grating  chhhk of cement sliding against cement, and then-

Out of the circle rose a statue of a gigantic, half red half white basketball. It was probably the height of two Murasakibaras stacked, and so largely round Kazunari couldn’t see any of the people on the opposite side. It even took over most of his sight from the  Hawkeye .

Delighted laughter came from the speakers as the earth ceased its forced rampage. “Aw, did I scare you guys! I thought all of you would’ve been delighted to see a basketball!” 

“What the hell? How am I gonna play with a basketball that huge?” Aomine scowled. 

“I really don’t think that’s what we should be focusing on,” Kuroko frowned.

“Indeed,” Akashi concurred. “What we need to be focused on figuring out what’s happened to us. You claimed you would provide us explanations, did you not?”

The voice laughed, the sound crackling hideously. “Yep yep yep, I sure did, and I am a Guide of my word!”

“Guide?”

“Oh silly me! I can’t believe I forgot to introduce myself! I am your Vacation Travel Guide. You may call me Zone!”

“Zone? Like, getting into the zone while playing basketball?” 

“Vacation?” Momoi questioned, tilting her head into her palm. “I don’t think any of us signed up for-“

“Oh no, you did sign up. Pretty much all of you did, though I suppose you  lost those memories , huh...” Kazunari’s stomach dropped to his feet. 

“Lost those memories?”

“The hell you think you’re talkin’ about?”

“I haven’t lost any memories!”

“Of course you don’t remember losing any memories!” Zone squawked irritatingly. “How would you remember your memories getting lost? And besides, aren’t you guys overreacting a little bit? It’s not like you lost all your memories, just... some.”

“Some doesn’t make it any better!” Kise shrieked, “how did you even take our memories from us?” 

“No matter,” interrupted Imayoshi. “If you do not tell us why we agreed to this, if that even ends up being the truth, then what reason do we have to stay?” 

Zone seemed to switch personality in a second. “Aw,” it said tearfully, “you guys are being so mean to your travel guide... I’m just trying to help-“ 

“Unimportant,” Akashi said, visibly unimpressed. “I am not interested in being here, particularly if I have somehow lost memory of how or why.”

“Yeah!” Riko agreed instantly. “The stuff you’re saying is ridiculously suspicious and barely makes sense. Just tell us where the boat to leave is.”

An excited gasp came from the disembodied voice. “You want the boat to end your field trip early?”

“I thought you said it was a vacation.” 

“Yes,” Riko said impatiently, ignoring Hanamiya’s comment, “I want out of here. I’m sure I’m not alone.” Multiple voices instantly gave their assent. Everyone had slowly began migrating near where Akashi and Riko stood, with their backs to the path leading into the plaza. 

“Well, alright! But the only way to get permission to leave a school field trip to graduate.” 

“Graduate? How the hell do you graduate from a field trip?”

“Well, I can’t let you leave unaccompanied because you’re students. But you’re no longer a student once you graduate, therefore I cannot keep you here on a  student field trip.”

“Why so much extra effort,” Kazunari groaned. “Graduate from an alleged field trip I don’t even remember signing up for?” 

Imayoshi added, “While certainly ridiculous, how are we to graduate on a field trip? That’s not how a school works.” 

“Oh, it’s not that hard, it’s pretty damn easy actually. You just have to kill somebody.” 

Staggering silence. 

The sun had finally fallen beyond the sea’s horizon, natural darkness taking over hand-in-hand with the words emitted with uncaring cold. Kazunari felt his breath hitch, heart pulsing the instant adrenaline throughout his stature. He barely noticed the fear that swept through the people around him, too caught up in the shaking of his body and the terror in his gut. Somehow, despite what he desperately wanted to believe, he knew this wasn’t a joke. All of this was going way too far to be some hazing prank gone wrong—even Kazunari would never take a prank this far.

Not all of his classmates believed in this sentiment. After a few moments of pure, dead silence, voices began to angrily rise in tandem. 

“Oi,” Kagami growled out, taking a threatening step towards the giant basketball as if planning to intimidate it. “Ain’t this going too far? Don’t say stupid shit like that.” 

“Yes!” Kiyoshi said firmly, the warm demeaned gone in an instant. “This kind of joking is unacceptable. Stop at once.”

“I concur,” Midorima said sternly, but the shaking of his hand as he pushed up his glasses told a different story. “This ridiculousness has gone on long enough.” 

“You guys are some real idiots, aren’t ya?” The voice cut through all speech, silencing the students so effectively it was almost as though they hadn’t been arguing in the first place. “You think this is a joke? That I went through all of this effort of preparing an entire island for a joke. No,” Zone took on a more dangerous edge, and the red side of the basketball almost seemed to be flowing dangerously against the darkness, “I’m dead serious. You want to leave, you follow the orders. Win the Killing Game.”

“This is crazy!” Kise yelled. “You can’t be serious! Murder?” 

“No one’s going to straight up kill another human being just to get out of here! Just let us leave the fuckin’ island.” 

“You do realize you’re holding us here against our will,” Akashi said calmly, closing his eyes. “And that people are going to be looking for us eventually.”

”Why would people be looking for you? You’re on a field trip!” Zone giggled.

“Cut it out with that field trip bullshit!” Aomine growled. “I didn’t sign a permission slip! I don’t even remember getting here!” 

“Well yeah, cause you lost some memories. I swear I’ve already mentioned that.” 

“That’s not any less crazy!”

“What do you think you’re doing,” Kuroko said. His face was blank, but Kazunari could practically feel the rage radiating off him. Several people nearby him flinched. “Why are you making such outlandish statements.”

Murasakibara finally spoke up. “Right... even if you are serious about this.. no one is going to kill each other because a person hiding inside a basketball told them to..” 

“Yeah! Come show your face coward, see if you keep spoutin’ shit!”

“‘No one is going to kill each other,” Zone sighed wistfully, neither confirming nor denying his location, “that’s what they all say, isn’t it? Yet every time, it ends up being a lie.” 

“Every time?” Kazunari strained out. He couldn’t tell if it was the lingering humidity or the weight of misfortune that had him sweating. “This- you’ve done this to other people?” 

“Something like that! Anyways, I’m sick of this subject. Especially since you guys are being so headstrong about it. Here,” and suddenly, a long slot pushed out of a horizontal line around the basketball, “are your E-handbooks. Keeping up with the times, all this technology junk! Whatever. You’ll need these to get into your hotel rooms. They also contain a map of the island, field trip guidelines, and other wonderful improvements!” 

“We don’t need them to get into a hotel room or for anything else!” Kasamatsu hissed, finally gaining his bearings. “We aren’t staying here! Where the hell are you?” 

“And tomorrow morning, all of the buildings will be unlocked,” Zone’s voice through the speakers continued breezily, “so you’ll have to wait a little bit to be able to eat at the cafe. Sorry about that one, folks. Just a little more maintenance. And if anyone wants to get in their graduation a little early, just know I don’t really care how you kill! You can stab, strangle, beat, drown—whatever the hell satisfies your little hearts! Just make sure you read the guidelines first, listed oh so kindly in your handbooks, to make sure you don’t break a rule!”

“Y-you’re still trying to convince us to k-kill each other to e-e-escape?” Sakurai brought up his sketchpad to cover his face, muffling words. “W-why so a-aw-awful?!”

“No one is going to kill to leave!” Kazunari said hotly, the burning in his stomach only deepening.

“Hey,” Momoi huffed, pointing angrily at the basketball as if it were actually speaking. “Don’t just... Where do you get off on doing this?”

“Don’t ‘hey’ me.” Zone’s voice suddenly turned sinister. The red half of the basketball began to illuminate harshly. “You lot asked how to graduate and leave. The only way to do such a thing is to murder one of your classmates and get away with it. If the idea of murder affronts you so, then simply do not try to leave, enjoy your vacation and shut your mouths.”

The finality in those words silenced everyone. No more objections, or questions—he could barely hear anyone breathing. The little hope lingering in the air, the belief that perhaps someone was eventually going to jump out and scream  Gotcha! and explain this as a horrifying joke, was flattened just that quickly. 

Zone’s grin was nearly palpable through the speakers. “Good night, my precious students! If you wanna leave  Teikou Island  early, I suggest you get to killin’! And don’t get caught! Otherwise, sleep tight and get ready to enjoy the Killing School Field Trip!” And with a sharp bout of static, the air was silent, basketball statue still presenting an eerie red. 

No one knew how to react. Kazunari didn’t even know what to think. What was he even supposed to think, after being told that his only chance to get off the island was to take the life of someone else? That brought even more concern. What if someone actually did go through with it? What if someone was already so eager that they were going to kill someone tonight? What if someone tried to kill  _ him _ ? Kazunari sucked in a breath, skin prickling as everyone glanced around, suspicious glares like daggers in the air. All the bravado from claiming Zone’s words as lies had disappeared as easily as smoke.

Just as the air tensed so tightly sparks could nearly be seen in the air, that the growing edge of distrust would pierce through and cause someone to **snap** right then and there-

Akashi stepped forward, and smoothly reached the statue to take his handbook from the open slot in seconds. 

“What are you doing?” Kasamatsu hissed so sharply it was nearly an accusation. 

Akashi kept his composure, unaffected. “We can’t exactly find a way off this island in the dark, can we? I believe our best course of action regarding this unsavory situation is to take time to regroup ourselves individually, and investigate with actual light.” 

A brief silence as his words were processed. 

“I hate to admit it,” Riko grimaced, “but I agree. The only lights are here around the plaza. Trying to navigate by moonlight might work but is too likely to lead to injuries.” She stepped forward to briefly glance through the compartment before picking up an E-handbook herself, and with confidence exclaimed, “As the Ultimate Personal Trainer, there’s no way I can allow that!”

Kazunari shook his head, clearing his previous thoughts away, letting the logic clear his paranoid thoughts. He figured Akashi and Riko were trying to help calm everyone down.  _ Too much stress will make a murder occur,  _ whispered a traitorous little voice. He stuffed it down. “Definitely,” he said, striding forward as well. “And I don’t know about you guys, but I need time to process this nonsense, and I don’t think that’s gonna happen being around everyone so tensed up. As much as we don’t want to stay here, some alone time will probably be better than stumbling in the dark, especially on empty stomachs.” He looked down into the compartment. The E-handbooks were carefully laid out into rows. Each screen was on, dimly displaying the name of its owner and a word underneath. The word beneath his read  Shadow . He picked his up, willfully ignoring the shaking of his hand. When he turned back, no one had moved. He grinned. “You guys gonna get yours, or should we get a volunteer to pass them out? How about you?” He said, pointing dramatically at Momoi. “You look like a teacher’s pet. 

Aomine snickered and flicked her ear. “He got you all figured out.” Momoi squawked, immediately denying despite her moving towards the statue anyways.

That sparked action. Some smiles came out, some still stayed frowns, but the remaining students gathered to pick up their handbooks. Once the weight inside it was gone, the compartment slot snapped shut, Aomine yelling as his hand was nearly caught up. Momoi fretted over him.

An obnoxious jingle began singing through the speakers. 

“Good evening students!” Zone’s voice chattered. “Normally it wouldn’t be this early, but I’m sure you’re feeling pretty jet lagged. So, your nighttime announcement is now. Don’t worry, it’ll be different tomorrow once everything is set up. Good night!” 

“Then it’s settled. We will meet up in the morning after we have taken time to recuperate.” 

Kuroko took a breath. “I think we should all take a look at the handbook functions, and come together in the morning and discuss.” 

“Yes,” agreed Akashi, “in the cafe.” 

“The cafe,” drawled Murasakibara, “I can make something if I can get in...”

“Great.” Kiyoshi grinned. “We can discuss a plan of action in the morning over a meal, and outsmart Zone!”

An awkward silence took over. Nowhere near as tense as before. Yet once again, no one was willing to move.

Until Hanamiya snickered. “Well, you heard them all! It’s bedtime.” And with a final smirk, he practically skipped into the hotel, the doors sliding open to allow him in.

“That guy...” Riko huffed, but moved toward the hotel nonetheless, her and Akashi once more leading the pack. 

Kazunari felt the cool breeze across his body as the doors slid open for them. The interior looked like a typical hotel. A few couches and soft chairs here and there, a receptionist desk with no one behind it. No one was up for checking in, bee lining for the elevator. 

Fifteen people was a tight fit—Hanamiya has already disappeared—so they broke off into three groups of five. Kazunari flopped down on the couch, as he volunteered to be in the last group, anxiously snapping his headband. Feeling eyes on him, he glanced up to see Midorima who turned away so quickly Kazunari almost wondered if he imagined it. Other students were scattered around the room, waiting for their turn to use the elevator and take refuge from the hell that was this ‘field trip.’ There was not much talk. The energy that had filled the group to argue and disregard Zone’s words was completely drained out. Kazunari, who had been a chatterbox his whole life, couldn’t convince himself to strike up conversation at the moment, just spent his time glancing over his classmates distractedly. 

No one is thinking of killing, _right_...?

Once inside, the elevator buttons were slightly confusing. There was the classic emergency stop, close doors buttons, but that was where the normalcy disappeared.

There were 4 long horizontal buttons, reading  Gen. Miracles, Shadows, Uncrowned Kings, Light and Xtras from top to bottom respectively. Kazunari, recognizing one, looked down at his handbook and the word beneath his name. 

“Huh,” he whispered, “this must be the indication of what floor your room’s on.” At least they wouldn’t have to go through each floor like idiots looking for a room.

“Yeah, I think so.” Riko frowned, also one of the final volunteers. She went through the effort of pressing all the floor level buttons. “What’s yours say?”

“Shadow. Wonder what it means.” 

“Mine also reads Shadow,” Kuroko spoke up. There was still an aura of anger around him, words slightly clipped. Kazunari would relate if he was feeling anything but paranoia now. 

Riko glanced over at Kiyoshi’s handbook as the elevator dinged, signaling the arrival of floor 2,  Light and Xtras. “Uncrowned King,”  she read, moving towards the opened doors, “why are these names so weird? And why the hell does mine say  Xtra on it?”

“My thing says  Light . Guess I’m on this floor too?” Kagami said, following in Riko’s steps. He hesitated as he left. “Uh... there’s nothing to worry about of course, cause no one’s gonna listen to Zone’s crazy ass words, but... stay safe, guys.”

“Yeah,” Riko chimed in, distractedly looking down the hallway. “Even though nothing should happen, caution is always important. See you in the morning.” 

The doors closed, and the elevator was back in action. With similar sentiments, Kiyoshi got off on the Uncrowned Kings floor, leaving Kazunari and Kuroko to the Shadows floor. 

Walking down the hallway, sparsely decorated with hideous red carpet, the lights were incredibly strong, so much that he nearly had to cover his eyes. 

“Damn, I feel like I’m looking at the sun in here... why are the lights so bright?”

“The brighter the light,” Kuroko said solemnly, “the darker the shadow.” Each door they came across had a name above a scanner. Kuroko’s room was the first door they came across. After a brief pause, he lifted his E-handbook in front of the scanner. The light above his name turned green. He barely pushed it open, seemed to struggle on his next words. Kazunari put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“We should be okay,” he said, not entirely believing his own words. “As long as we don’t let ourselves be fooled by Zone... we can find a way off ourselves. Build a raft or something.”

Kuroko sighed but turned around with a minuscule smile. “I agree, Takao-kun. This should not have happened to us, but all we can do now is persevere by working together. Good night.” 

“Good night.” 

Kazunari’s room was directly across from Kuroko’s. He entered after feeling out the light switch, slipping out of his sandals. 

It was a normal looking hotel room for the most part. A little entryway with a closet, tatami mats, futon, and a small table and chairs pushed away into the corner. A large television was mounted into the wall directly in front of the single bed pressed up against the wall, the room a chaotic mash of western and Japanese rooms. But even weirder than all of that were the rings hanging from the ceiling.

Kazunari knew what they were of course. Gymnastics still rings—an apparatus that focused on your upper body strength. But why on earth were they right next to his bed? _Did this happen to everyone’s room? Some aspect of your talent gets put into your room?_

The room felt so utterly cluttered he had to laugh. It was nearly as terrible as his room at home.

_ Home... will I get to see it again ...? _

Swallowing, he shook his head, deciding to distract himself with looking around. Upon opening his closet, Kazunari saw a few extra futons stacked, along with...?

“Damn,” he said aloud, “how many copies of clothes can you have?”

Hung throughout the closet were carbon copies of the outfit he had on—multiples of the same sweater, pants, and even his leotard!  _They seriously are planning on making us stay for a while_. And yet there’s only one pair of pajamas in here. _Great planning, Zone_.

Kazunari ran a hand over his face. He hoped that the bathrooms in here had a shower or a bathtub, because he really did not feel like traveling to look.

Luckily, the bathroom contained a shower. Glancing around warily for any cameras—he hadn’t spotted a single one this far, but it didn’t hurt to check—he turned on the water and stripped quickly, grimacing at having to practically peel his leotard off his skin.  Goddamn sweat. 

Kazunari let the water caress his skin as his thoughts wandered out of his control.

What was going to happen now? Were they really going to be forced to participate in this stupid ‘vacation’? It seemed like that voice—Zone, was actually serious with saying they had agreed to it. But why would anyone possibly agree to having their memories stolen? Why would any of them, especially as a class, ever consider agreeing with this, when the only way out is to graduate? 

When the only way to escape is to successfully  _slaughter_ one of your classmates?

Kazunari flopped onto the full bed—he didn’t want to handle a futon tonight, after being stuck in a coffin—and slipped under the covers, clad in sleeping shorts and a T-shirt as pajamas. He had no idea what to do with the clothes he was wearing before, so he just left them on the floor, just like he did back home. 

Back home. Would he be stuck here? Would he eventually get back home? Did he even  want to go back home? While things had certainly got better at home once his sister was born, it still wasn’t...

No. Regardless of whether he wanted to go back or not, this was still a kidnapping, screw whatever Zone said. And screw the electricity bill! Kazunari was going to leave all the lights on, whoever did this’s money be damned.

But if they were able to do all of this, money is clearly not an issue.

Kazunari groaned and flipped over onto his stomach. He need to get himself together, to be a positive force here. He was normally pretty friendly and easy to get along with, but this situation messed up his game. He knew he wasn’t acting his usual self, but could he really be blamed? He had no idea what to say for once in his chatterbox life.  _I’ll have to fix that tomorrow_.

With another sigh, Kazunari reaches over for the E-handbook he left on his nightstand. Turning it on to once again see his name the the word shadow, he tried swiping on it to see if anything would happen. 

Immediately, the bright screen moved away to reveal four icons—one that said “STUDENT REPORTS”, a picture of a map, what looked like an open book filled with scribbles, and finally an icon of a magnifying glass. Tapping on that one only led to a screen reading “unavailable.” 

He tried the map next. It loaded to show theisland from a bird’s eye view, with each place labeled. There were a bunch of pixelated icons on top of the hotel. 

Taking a guess, he clicked on the hotel. The image expanded until he could see a crude rendition of the first floor of the hotel. Along the side, small squares were floating, with the bottommost square glowing. He clicked on a different square at random. The image shifted once more to reveal pixelated icons of one of the floors—Kiyoshi and Hanamiya’s icons showing up in their rooms. 

So this can show where everyone is on the island,  he thought sluggishly, and these two have a whole floor to themselves, even though the map shows more rooms there... 

The book icon opened a long list, titled GUIDELINES.

** GUIDELINES ** : 

  1. Nighttime is from 10 PM to 9 AM. During this time, the cafe, gym, and the morgue will be closed. You may not enter during this time.
  2. During nighttime, you are not allowed to sleep outside of your hotel room. 
  3. The students will reside on Teikō Island until the field trip is finished, or they graduate. The only way to graduate is to kill one (or more) of your classmates and get away with it.
  4. When a body is discovered by three or more people, an announcement will ring. Following this announcement, the participants will be given a certain amount of time to investigate. After the investigation will be a class trial. 
  5. During the trial, the students will try and discover whodunnit. If they successfully find the culprit, only the culprit will receive punishment. If they cannot, everyone besides the culprit will face punishments.
  6. No pollution! Polluting the water around you with trash, including but not limited to paper, plastic, dead bodies, and other wastes is not allowed. 
  7. No sand pollution either! We are civilized here. The only things that may be buried are bodies. 
  8. Students may feel free to go anywhere on the island. 
  9. Failure to adhere to any of the rules will result in punishment. 
  10. Rules may be added or changed at any time. 



How unsettling. There were actually rules in place for if a murder happened. He suddenly felt so disgusted he couldn’t even bring himself to give more than a glance to what was in the STUDENT REPORTS icon. All it was was an information section about all the students. Their name, talent, height, etc. Kazunari didn’t want to read it right now. Why are there even reports on each student for a _field trip_?

And at the bottom of the screen, no matter whose profile he turned to, lingered a single line of text:

{ **Remaining Students: 16** }

Feeling like he just jumped into a ice bath, Kazunari tossed his handbook onto the ground, uncaring for whether it broke and unwilling to keep looking at profiles, heart beating like he just finished a routine, he grabbed a pillow and held it over his head, pushing it hard on his ears as though it could block out his thoughts. He had no idea how long it was since he ate, but he couldn’t bring himself to even think about feeling hungry.

There should be no way that any of this was real—that this Killing Game or graduation or whatever the hell—was real. 

And why did some of these people seem familiar to him? Almost as if he’d heard their names somewhere before. That wasn’t entirely uncommon. Ultimates who has been selected often were broadcasted, whether in something as a town newspaper or a national news station. It would make sense to recognize someone like Kise, as a model, or people who’s family likely made a name for themselves like Akashi. But why did he feel a sense of familiarity with the others? And he has to wonder... is it possible Zone was telling the truth about their lost memories? Had they actually been a class together and just forgot? Or were they an upcoming class who just got unlucky?

Kazunari knows he didn’t make it to Hope’s Peak Academy just yet. But had he just forgotten about it?

No, that couldn’t be possible. He looked in the bathroom mirror, and while he looked tired, he didn’t look any older than he was yesterday. Everyone else looked pretty young too. 

Aomine had been talking about basketball, insisting it was his talent... Kazunari had played basketball a lot, too.  I _s it possible I played a basketball game against some of them?_ Groaning and flopping around childishly, intermittently pushing his face into the pillow and the bed, focused on the feeling of not being able to breathe to distract himself. 

It was a long, long time before he fell into a fitful sleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hopefully i’ll have the next part up soon,, 
> 
> who would y’all like kazu to spend his free time with? 
> 
> and how do you think this killing game is going to work out :)?
> 
> also sometimes i accidentally skip over parts in my writing so pls let me know if there’s random text in between-


	3. chapter one - kalopsia - daily life (i)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang takes a look around for anything to communicate for help. Some tensions start running high, but at least Kagami has pancakes. Midorima has also become a criminal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i probably should’ve mentioned this at the beginning, but personalities probably won’t be as exact as the show just because they’re in a different universe, of course. that said though, please let me know if someone is TOO far out of character?

“ **Good morning, my lovely students! Rise and shine. It’s 9 AM, and the sun is nice and bright! Everything is open now, so feel free to look around and have fun. Be prepared for a special announcement tomorrow!”**

That was something no one wanted to wake up to. Wiping the drool from his cheek, Kazunari looked around, confusion settling until he remembered where he was. Everything rushed back at once, and he sighed. That’s right, they were on an island, and were told to kill each other if they wanted to escape. He rubbed his eyes, clumsily getting up and accidentally stepping on his e-Handbook still sitting facedown on the floor. 

Looking at the screen, there was a notification sitting below his name, cheerfully broadcasting that a rule was added. 

_11\. Please do not damage your e-handbooks._

_Whoops, did I do that_ , he thought, recalling how he had practically thrown the damned thing off his bed.

Rubbing his face, he dreaded whatever special announcement they were going to get tomorrow. _Whoever’s behind this... what are they getting out of this?_

He sighed, opening the curtains to let in the sunlight, and decided to start stretching.

He was too preoccupied to stretch last night, and it felt pretty good to loosen his limbs up again after however long they were forced to stay in those coffins. It helped cleared his mind, focusing on the gentle pull of muscles, and breathing, and what he was going to do today, and took his mind _off_ the fact that they had been kidnapped, allegedly had memories stolen, are trapped on an island with no escape unless they decide to kill-

Well. Maybe he wasn’t distracting himself as much as he thought. 

Sighing once more, he decided to forgo the rest of his stretches—coach would kill him if he found out—and decided to just get himself decent. 

As he’s drowsily brushing his teeth, something else hits him. 

_Weren’t we supposed to have a meeting in the cafe. Shit. It’s 9:15 already, I totally forgot. Hope I’m not the only one late._

After checking he had his e-handbook for the 50th time and very hastily tossing on his clothes—screw trying to fix his hair, he moved to leave his room. He had an odd feeling someone was near his door. Despite not wanting to believe someone would not only take this killing game talk seriously, let alone target him first, Kazunari checked with his Hawkeye and yes, there was _absolutely_ someone in front of his door. 

Knowing that didn’t stop him from nearly losing his mind when he found Kuroko  _directly __in front of his face_ , so close he could feel his breath. 

“Takao-kun,” Kuroko greeted politely, as if he wasn’t just standing uncomfortably close to Kazunari’s door like a maniac. His hand hadn’t been up to knock or ring the doorbell or anything. He was just  _there_. “Good morning.”

“Kuroko! My dude!” Kazunari exclaimed, hoping that Kuroko can’t tell he was unsettled. “What’s up?” 

“You are going to breakfast, yes?” At Kazunari’s nod he continued. “It would be best for us to all stick together in this situation. There are some of us who are refusing to leave their rooms, though. You are very inviting. I think you would do well in convincing people to come out.” While Kuroko sounded polite, the lack of tone in his voice certainly didn’t sound like he is asking, though  that poker face made it harder to tell. Kazunari tried to make the best of it.

“Oh sure. Makes sense.” Stepping fully out into the hallway, the quiet  whoosh of his door closing behind him, Kazunari sees the the full extent of the hallway. It’s barren, but the lights are just as overbearing as yesterday. “We aren’t the only ones out of our rooms, right?”

“No. Most people actually came out during and after the morning announcement, and hopefully on their way to the cafe as planned. The only ones still unaccounted for are Sakurai-kun, Kise-kun, Murasakibara-kun, and Midorima-kun. I believe I can talk to Kise-kun and Murasakibara-kun, but you will probably be more effective with Sakurai-kun and Midorima-kun.”

That last part made Kazunari’s eyebrows furrow slightly. He understood why he might be able to convince Sakurai—they spent most of yesterday together—but why Midorima? They hadn’t interacted much outside of introductions. Distantly, he recalls Midorima staring at him before leaving in the elevator.

As if reading his thoughts, Kuroko tilted his head. “You will understand when you talk to Midorima-kun.” 

Kazunari rang the doorbell—why were there doorbells in a damn hotel—and knocked gently on Sakurai’s door. There was no answer. The poor kid had probably worked himself up beyond belief. 

“Hey Sakurai... it’s me, Takao! You in there? Drawing up a storm?” Kazunari could hear some scuffling from inside. After a few moments, a voice called back. 

“T-t-takao-kun, g-good morning, d-do you need s-s-someth-thing from me?” While Kazunari had some trouble hearing Sakurai through the door, he _could_ hear how much worse his stutter had become. 

“I do, actually! Would you mind coming out for breakfast?” No response. “It’s not good to skip the first meal of the day, y’know?” 

Another pause. Then, “I’m really s-sorry, b-b-but I don’t think I have enough... courage t-to come out a-after what Z.. Zo-zone.. the v-voice said yesterday...” 

Kazunari sighed quietly. He doesn’t know him well enough to know the best way to help. He’s always been pretty good at reading people, but that was in the normal world. 

Not in a killing game. 

Shaking his head, he tried a different approach, snapping his headband as he thought. “Hey hey now, don’t apologize! It’s perfectly fine to be a little scared. Especially in a messed up situation like ours. But that’s exactly why we need you to come out! Letting yourself stew in fear is probably exactly what that dumb guy wants. We have to work together now to stop what he’s trying to do, and we can’t do that without the whole team.” 

There’s no reaction on the other side of the door, and Kazunari starts to feel like the dumb one staring at the sad grey door. He turns away.

“...T-thank you, Takao-kun. I’ll think a-about your offer.” It’s soft, barely legible through a door and Kagami’s loud voice, but there nonetheless. Kazunari smiles. He wondered how often the kid got to hear that he was important in a group. Even if Sakurai doesn’t show up to the meeting, it sounds like he was able to help Sakurai a little bit.

Hell, maybe they were all handling it and didn’t even need his help. He was able to hear snippets of the conversation as he trotted down the hideously carpeted hallway, after a short elevator ride. Unlike their floor, the Miracle floor was poorly lit, only one light in the entire hallway. He passed Murasakibara leaving, small greetings exchanged. Kise and Kuroko were outside of Midorima’s room, the latter standing firmly in front of the sliver of door that was open.Damn, he meant it when he said he’d be fine convincing the other two.

They were saying something about... about luck and objects? Kuroko turned to him as he drew near. “Ah, Takao-kun. I believe you can be a great help with Midorima-kun’s problem.” 

At this, Midorima huffed and pushed up his glasses. “Unless he happens to have a bright yellow headband, I doubt it.” 

Kazunari tilted his head. “A bright yellow headband? Is this for, uh, lucky object stuff?”

“ _Lucky item,_ ” Midorima bit out. “Cancer’s lucky item today is a yellow headband. Both Momoi and Aida have said they do not have one. Cancer ranks 9th today. I cannot leave without my lucky item.” 

“I believe she wishes to be called by her first name,” said Kuroko, tilting his head.

“You can leave without a lucky item!” Kise chipped in unhelpfully. “You’re just stubborn and choosing not to!”

“Die.” 

Kazunari raises his eyebrows but couldn’t stop himself from smiling.  What an interesting thing to say, especially after yesterday’s proceedings. Luckily, Kise took it in stride.

“What?! So mean!!! How could you say that in this situation!!!” 

“Anyways,” Kuroko intervenes smoothly, “There is someone here who has such a headband. Takao-kun, actually.” Kazunari perked up, surprised Kuroko had even noticed it.  _Very observant_. 

“You do?” Midorima faced Kazunari quickly. Kazunari laughed, startled at his eagerness, and he cleared his throat in embarrassment. More calmly this time, “You have a yellow headband?” 

“Oh yeah,” he said, holding up his wrist that he typically kept a headband wrapped around, just in case. His hair got into his eyes plenty, and it was more convenient to just keep a hairband or clip on him at all times. Usually he wore an orange headband, but he hadn’t been able to find it. Midorima fixed his eyes on him, but said nothing as he pushed up his glasses.  _Too shy to ask for it yourself, huh?_ Kazunari grinned at the opportunity. “You can use it if you come to the cafeteria.” 

“Fool,” Midorima sighed, as if it should have been obvious. “I was planning on going as soon as I got today’s lucky item anyways.” But still, he held out his hand expectantly with the tips of his ears red. Kazunari had a feeling he was going to have fun messing with this one, unwrapping his headband from his wrist and placing in Midorima’s taped hand. With that, Midorima stepped out of his room, giving Kazunari a nod. He grinned in return, still wondering what the hell a lucky item was. Well, if it gets the guy out of his room.

“Nice!” Kise cheered. “The gang’s all out!” 

The cafe looked about as normal as the hotel, although there weren’t many seating options. There was one long table in the middle, and a set of barstools in front of an opening revealing the kitchen. Through the pane-less window, he could see Akashi and Murasakibara talking. He could also see a sliding glass door leading to some outdoor seating.

Sakurai had decided to come the cafeteria after all. He was sitting near the end of the table with Riko and Kiyoshi to his left. Kise and Kuroko sat across from him, while Kazunari took the open spot to Sakurai’s right and smiled brightly, snickering when he squeaked, hurriedly turning to face the wall. 

“Wow, look at that!” Kise leaned forward across the table into Kazunari’s space, not that he particularly minded. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice those yesterday, Takao! I’ve never met someone with dimples before!” 

“Seriously?” Kazunari questioned, idly bouncing his leg, silently noting Midorima taking a seat next to him at the table’s end. “Not even in the modeling business?” 

“Well, edited into photos or on magazine covers I guess, but not face to face.”

“How on Earth did you not notice yesterday?” Riko wondered aloud with a protein bar in hand. “They pop out when he’s talking normally, too.”

“Yeah, but they’re shallower when he’s just talking! So much deeper when he’s smiling!” Aomine turned and grinned at those words slyly from a barstool, clearly about to make an innuendo before Momoi hit his arm. He glared down at her. Kise, ignoring the scolding in the background, continued leaning across the table towards Kazunari. “Can I touch them?”

“Don’t be weird, Kise-kun,” Kuroko said. Kazunari snickered. 

Kise started whining immediately. “Kurokocchi, how could you be so mean to meeeee!”

“I mean, it’s pretty damn weird to ask someone you just met to touch their face,” chuckled Kagami, eagerly ripping into an apple. 

“Eh,” Kazunari grinned, “not as bad as Riko trying to get everyone’s shirts off.”

“Hey, I didn’t ask everyone! Just... most of you.”

“Kurokocchi?” Midorima interjected, looking visibly disturbed. 

“Yes!” Kise continued, unperturbed. He focused back on Takao. “Can I please touch them? Pretty please?”

“Maybe later,” Kazunari tittered as Akashi and Murasakibara walked in through the kitchen door, “looks like the strategy meeting is starting.”

“Look what I just found...” Murasakibara brought with him a handful of menus. The menus themselves looked as though they had been written by a child, in sloppy kanji and odd crayon drawings all over the place. Every single thing on the menu was a confectionary treat.

“Wow,” Kazunari commented, “I think these menus were created just for you.” 

“They don’t look too bad...” he replied bashfully, as bashfully as someone with a lollipop in their mouth could look at least.

“Now that we are all settled,” began Akashi, standing right where the head of the table should be. “Let’s agree on a plan. Now that all of the doors should be unlocked, we should investigate inside all of the buildings. See if there’s any information about where we actually are, any useful supplies we might use to escape ourselves, or contact authorities and the like.”

“And what are we going to do about the Killing Game?” 

Slowly, every head in the cafe swiveled to look at Hanamiya, standing on the opposite side of the room leaning heavy against the wall, arms wrapped around himself in a faux hug. 

Akashi appeared unmoved. “What about it? You aren’t planning on participating in it, correct?” 

“Of course not. But see, it doesn’t really matter whether I say I am or not. Who knows what I’m truly thinking? Anyone here could be planning a murder.” 

A cacophony of noise arose. Loud denial—mostly from Kagami and Kiyoshi.

“Yeah right!”

”No one is going to kill anyone here!”

“But can you say that for sure?” Imayoshi spoke up. “Especially considering most of us are strangers. 

“No,” Kasamatsu said firmly. “No one here is going to commit a murder. I will make sure of it.”

”Exactly,” Kiyoshi affirmed, pumping a fist. “We all have a common goal. There no need to kill just to escape, when we can just escape by working together!”

“Well spoken. I intend to do as much as possible to prevent a homicide as well,” Akashi said placatingly. “That does not change the fact that they may have a point.” He turned to address the rest of the room. “No one here can presume to know what anyone else is thinking. It certainly _is_ possible that someone is considering to try and escape the island.” 

“But that would also be pretty stupid,” Momoi spoke up, clearly hoping to help dissuade the idea from anyone’s head. “Both Zone and the rules said that if anyone, uh, kills, that they have to do it without being caught. The rules even state that there’d be an investigation period and a trial!”

“And that if caught, the culprit faces punishment,” finished Riko, crossing her arms with a huff.

“It doesn’t state what kind of punishment, either! Would someone really risk that?”

”I mean, it’s prob’ly jail or somethin’, right?” Himuro idly placed his hand just below his beauty mark. “Even though being here’s kinda jail itself.

“Desperate people do desperate things,” Imayoshi smiled, pushing up his glasses. “If someone feels they have a strong enough motive, they can convince themselves that any potential consequences are worth it.” 

“Yes,” Kazunari said, scratching his head. “but isn’t it also dangerous to just assume someone is ready to kill? Mistrusting everyone will make people likely to.. _hurt_ others too.”

“And that,” Akashi said, gesturing towards Kazunari, “is also an important point. Blind faith is reckless and idiotic. However, blatant distrust is dangerous as well. Therefore  I will suggest vigilance. We need to be able to work together, albeit with caution.” 

Kasamatsu nodded. “As much as I don’t want to doubt anyone here, we’re strangers, mostly. We just need to be careful. There are sixteen of us, so I suggest we investigate in groups. No one goes off by themselves without telling anyone.” 

“Okay, but what about food,” drawled Aomine, half out of his seat and sprawled out against the counter in front of the kitchen opening. “I’m starving.” 

“If anyone wishes to get something to eat before investigating, that’s fine of course. But-“

“But I was gonna make something...” Murasakibara pouted, hovering near the kitchen door. 

“Well then, how about Murasakibara stay here to make breakfast while the rest of us look around?” suggested Kagami. 

“But we just said no one should be alone right now...” Kuroko corrected quietly, thought most people next to him flinched anyways. Kazunari wondered why.

“Is anyone else here skilled in the kitchen?” Akashi asked. A few hands went up, Kazunari’s not one of them.  _I do know how to cook, but I’d probably be more useful investigating. Hawkeye and all._ He snickered quietly as Kiyoshi gently pulled Riko’s raised hand down, and when Aomine loudly said _like hell you can cook_ to Momoi’s raised hand.

“Murasakibara, would you mind some extra hands in the kitchen for right now?”

“I can do it by myself...”

“Of course you can. But at the moment, no one should be alone, right?”

“I mean, do we even gotta worry?” questioned Kagami, “who’s gonna try and mess with him? He’s huge.” 

“Desperate people,” repeated Imayoshi slyly. “Desperate things.” 

“Right,” Akashi tilted his head. “Then Murasakibara, Kagami, Sakurai and Kasamatsu will remain in the cafe and make brunch. The rest of us can relay our findings to them when we re-meet.”

”Pancakes!” Kagami said in English, rubbing his hands together. Himuro rolled his eyes fondly. Kazunari couldn’t help but notice they were sitting on opposite sides of the table, though.

“Sounds good. And you four can call us back here when you’re done or something. So... what about the rest of us?” 

**

In the end, they decided to draw straws from the kitchen. The straws were multicolored, so after taking out enough differing colors for the remaining twelve, groups were determined. They placed their straws back in front of the spots they were sitting at Momoi’s insistence to be used for later.

Kazunari had ended up grouped with Kiyoshi, Midorima, and Momoi. 

“Well,” Kazunari spun to face them, the hot sun immediately bearing down as the stepped out of the cafe, “any requests on what to check out first, or should we just go where the wind takes us?”

“The only place this wind is going to take us to is a heat stroke,” Momoi sighed, fanning herself with her hand. Kazunari laughed, agreeing wholeheartedly. This sun was going to take out everyone. He almost asked Midorima to give him his hairband back, so that his hair could stop heating up his face, or so that he would have something to fiddle with like usual, but figured it’d be rude after he practically just let the guy borrow it for the day. 

“I don’t have any preference,” Kiyoshi smiled at Midorima. “You?”

Midorima pushes up his glasses with a nod. “I would prefer to visit the infirmary as soon as possible.” 

“To the infirmary we go!” Kazunari cheered, getting the group walking out of the plaza and across the path towards the beach. He saw the other two groups outside dispersing as well—Riko’s towards Vorpal Swords Gym, Akashi’s to the unlabeled long dirty white building next to the hotel. 

He saw Momoi pull out her E-handbook to look at the map, staring intently without saying a word. Kazunari poked her shoulder. “Is the infirmary still where we left it?”

She looked up, startled, then chuckled. “I’m not sure... I think it ran behind the hotel.”

“Behind the hotel?” Kiyoshi frowned playfully. “I could’ve sworn I saw it go out for a swim.”

“You’re all being ridiculous,” Kazunari huffed. “We all know it went to get beefed up in the gym.”

“What on earth are you all talking about?” Midorima glanced around. “The building was half-buried. It wasn’t going anywhere.”

“ _That’s_ why it’s not going anywhere?” Kazunari smirked, highly amused. “Because it’s buried?” 

“W-well, obviously it’s also a building! They- it can’t move.” 

“That’s not what you said though~ you said it wasn’t moving cause it was buried.”

“It’s okay that you didn’t know,” Momoi grinned, joining in on the fun. “Some people probably go their whole lives without knowing buildings can’t go anywhere by themselves.”

“Aw,” Kazunari cooed, “next we’re gonna find out he still believes in Santa.”

“What?! I am not a child-“

“Don’t say that,” Kiyoshi grinned. “We don’t want to ruin Christmas for him!” 

“We barely even _celebrate_ Christmas here!”

Eventually they made to the front of the infirmary, chattering and poking small fun at Midorima all the while his face grew redder and redder as if he had been subjected to a sunburn. Honestly, it’d probably happen eventually with how pale he was, the sun continued to be horribly unforgiving. They had bigger fish to fry than the sun, however. 

“How’re we supposed to get in?” Momoi put a finger to her lips. The infirmary was in just as bad shape as yesterday—half buried in a poor rendition of a treasure chest, the white walls dirty. Plenty of bugs had clearly decided this was an optimal new home. 

“We could try sneaking in through a window?” Kiyoshi suggested, moving forward. He tried messing with the front windows, which were barely above sand level, to no avail. “I thought everything was supposed to be unlocked.”

“I suppose that is for doors, rather than windows. Is there really no way in?”

“Nonsense!” Zone’s cheery voice came out of the speaker on top of the building, and while annoying, gave Kazunari an idea as he moved closer. “There’s only one place you guys can’t get into right now, but that’s certainly not here.”

“And of course,” Midorima mused, frowning. “You aren’t planning on telling us how to get in.” 

“Hey, you kids are smart these days, always finding your way around technology and basketball and college and the like. You don’t need my help!” 

“Sure don’t,” Kazunari smirked, having found what he was looking for. Focusing with his Hawkeye, he could see the top of the half-covered building. There were vents here and there, but most importantly, there a small hatch—no doubt, that was stupid entrance Zone was taking about. “We can get in through the roof.”

“There is? How do you know for sure?”

“I can see it,” he said nonchalantly. “It’s right in the middle of the roof. If someone gets boosted up there, it’ll probably be unlocked.”

Kazunari was boosted up to the roof, as a strange reward since he was the one who saw it. Once up there, after, he gave the remaining three a salute. “If I don’t return from the underground depths, remember me, soldiers!” 

Blocking the sun with a hand, he easily maneuvered through the ventilation, making his way directly towards the hatch. It was simple—a plain black submarine-esque hatch. He put his hands on the wheel to turn it, only to quickly pull them back with a barely constrained yelp. It felt boiling. 

He flapped his hands about uselessly, hissing quietly. Thankfully he hadn’t actually burned himself, but he really wished he had his gloves. Maybe there would be some in the nightstand in his room—every other piece of clothing seemed to have been duplicated. 

Sighing, he tried pulling his sweater sleeves over his hand. It made his grip slippery, but turning the hatch was strangely smooth, as if it were the only part of the building that was new. The hatch opened, he peeked in to see a half ladder, the other piece laying sadly on the floor. Oh well, he could make the small jump. 

Climbing down carefully, he decided to leave the hatch open, cause this room clearly needed any light it could get. It wasn’t impossible to see, but the only light was coming through the two windows in front and one in the back. He hopped down, glancing around briefly. It looked just like a miniature doctor’s office. Two sick beds, a cabinet with glass doors filled to the brim with bottles, shelves on the opposite wall littered with supplies and medical pamphlets.

He heard knocking on the window and turned. Momoi was pressed against it, waving excitedly. Kazunari grinned back, skipping over and easily pulling back the latch and opening it.

It was a bit of a struggle to get everyone in—Kiyoshi and Midorima were thick, not to mention the latter’s reservations about “crawling around in filthy sand” while Momoi’s curvaceous figure nearly got stuck as well. 

“Man, that was tough,” she panted after finally making it through. “Riko could’ve gotten through there without a hitch.”

“Hey now,” Kiyoshi defended gently, but then sighed. “Don’t let her hear you say that.” 

“Now that you’re all here, welcome to my laboratory,” he said with a flourish. 

Midorima rolled his eyes. “Are we really expected to crawl through a window every time we need to come in here?”

“Maybe it would be best if no one came in here,” Momoi said, standing near a shelf. Upon closer inspection—

“Poison,” Midorima said, “how wonderful.” 

“And antidotes,” Kazunari replied, hoping he didn’t sound as strained as he felt at the sight. It would be horribly easy to poison someone.  Especially with other people making your food. _No, none of them should know about this poison, right? And I need to have faith._ _Constantly being paranoid is no good_. “All of the poisons have a matching antidote.”

“True,” Midorima conceded, “but they’re still dangerous nonetheless.”

“Probably just as dangerous as all the supplies over here. Scalpels and all.” Kiyoshi was hovering inbetween the two beds, messing with a tray of items. He could see scalpels, scissors, bandages and the like. 

“And that begs the question.. do we tell the others?” 

“What?” Kiyoshi frowned. “Why would we hide things?”

“It’s not about trying to hide things, but trying to prevent a murder. Poison would be a fairly efficient way to kill someone, and would be harder to trace.” 

Momoi grimaced. “Maybe, but won’t it be worse if we don’t tell? What if someone comes in here and finds the poison, and decides to tell? Then we would be outed as hiding information. And in the case scenario someone did die from poison, it’d be easier to deal with everybody as a suspect, rather than have to guess if someone discovered it secretly.”

”But there aren’t many ways a person can be slipped poison,” Midorima still argued. “Most of the time people are poisoned through food or drink. If someone is poisoned, the person behind the food would be our suspect.” The fact that Murasakibara, the Ultimate Pastry Chef would likely be the prime suspect was left unsaid. 

Kazunari, uneasy with the casual idea of being slipped poison, intervened, “But almost everybody is investigating right now. Another group might crawl in here and find the poison either way.” 

Midorima paused, then coughed embarrassedly, apparently not having considered that. “Very well then.” 

“Anyways,” Kazunari smiled at him, “you’re the Ultimate Doctor, right? You’ll probably be hanging out in here a lot, so you’d probably see someone messing around in the cabinets.” 

“Yes, most likely,” he looked away. Kazunari noticed him clutching the borrowed headband, and had to reach deep within himself to not tease him about it. They needed to be focusing on looking around. “Regardless, there does not appear to be anything of use here in terms of escape.” 

“Maybe not,” Momoi sighed. “Will be useful if someone gets hurt though. _Not_ looking forward to squeezing through the window again. Where to next?” 

They, after a fun game of _push your ridiculously built classmates through the unnecessarily tiny window_ , decided on making their way to the gym next. 

“So how were you able to see the roof from where you were?” questioned Momoi along the way. Damn, he almost thought he would get away without any questions.

“Ah, it’s just this weird sight thing I have. I can see, like, everything around me to a certain extent in my head. It’s kind of like I have a bird’s eye view, about the size of a basketball court.” 

“Wow! That’s pretty cool! I wonder if everyone here has a mini superpower then...”

“Superpower?”

“Ability, I guess. Dai-chan has a superpower too... maybe that’s part of why we were taken too, aside from just being Ultimates...” Momoi continued to mutter to herself as they walked, Kazunari taking the information in confusedly.  Other abilities, huh...

The gymnasium was  ridiculously humongous. 

It was two floors. Not on top of each other—the first floor was connected to the second via open stairs. If you were to be up on the second floor, you could see the entirety of the first floor perfectly. Next to the stairs were stacked bleachers pushed into the wall. He supposed the gym was so big because of the amount of people here whose talents revolved around physical exertion. That’s all the first floor was—a training area. He could see the area meant for him; tumbling mats, horizontal and parallel bars, and a vault. To its right was an kickboxing ring, training dummies resting with a punching bag, clearly for Kasamatsu. 

Kise, Himuro, Aomine and Riko were investigating here, or at least they were _supposed_ to be. Only Kise was visible, posing the dummies and clearly not investigating. He waved to them idly as they came in.

Kiyoshi noticed this immediately. “Why are you alone? Where is your group?!” he demanded, as Kazunari restrained himself from bee lining straight towards the gymnastics equipment. He could mess with it after he’s eaten, his stomach reminded him dutifully.

“Oh, they’re all here,” Kise said nonchalantly, putting a dummy’s hand on its head. “On the second floor, I think? Maybe. Himuro’s in the locker room, that’s for sure.”

“What happened to staying together? No one going alone?” 

“Uh,” Kise replied eloquently. 

“I suppose logic went in one ear and out the other,” Midorima sighed, Kise immediately protesting.

“We’re all in the same building... just different areas! More efficient for investigating!”

“Yes, you’re clearly working very hard.”

“Aomine and Riko probably aren’t looking around either! I can hear him messing with basketballs.”

“Not like we were all together the whole time,” Kazunari intervened, laughing. “We also spent a lot of time chatting too.” He carefully did not mention most of the chatting was really a disagreement over poison. “I’m gonna check out the locker rooms,” he didn't wait for a response, moving quickly, knowing the more he moved aroundHe was  really trying his best to stay focused, but he had only went through one room and was already bored of investigating. He  really, really wished he had his headband back. Or had decided to be part of the cooking quartet. He would probably be able to stay focused on food. He saw Momoi following him, glancing around at everything excitedly like a kid in a toy store. Pushing his hands against his cheeks, he entered the door, holding it open for her. She smiled gratefully. 

Through the door was a small hallway that turned. He presumed the locker rooms were in the space beneath the second floors. He had to scan his handbook to enter the boys’ locker room, Momoi scanning hers for the girls’. Both doors slid open with a silent  whoosh .

Himuro was inside, sitting on the bench running through the middle with a locker open in front of him, fist clenched tightly around some kind of paper now wrinkling horribly. He was quite obviously upset. This was the most emotion Kazunari had seen on the guy—he was nearly as poker faced as Kuroko. Kazunari wondered if it would be better to walk back out.  _Shouldn’t be alone with an angry person during a killing game._

_No. Don’t just doubt people like that,_ Kazunari berated himself, _no one is going to kill. This isn’t you. You’re being ridiculous._

Believing he had convinced himself, Kazunari stepped forward until Himuro could see him in his peripherals. Himuro’s head snapped up, something a little wild in his eyes. Kazunari went for a smile. “Hey, you keep glaring that hard and you’ll get as many wrinkles as the paper you’re making a hole in.”

Himuro stared for a while longer, before shaking his head, gracing his features with a soft smile. “Ah, Takao. You startled me.” He stood up, very unsubtly hiding the paper from view. “Kise or Riko send you to catch lil’ ole me?” 

“Well, no, but Midorima was bitching at Kise since you’re all not technically together and Kise was making some excuses.” Kazunari hoped neither of them minded he talked about them. Or found out at all. He rushed to correct himself at Himuro’s raised brow. “Not bitching, per se, but you know what I mean. You didn’t hear it from me,” he winked. 

Himuro chuckled, moving forward to open his locker. “Secret’s safe with me. We prob’ly been here long enough.. wonder where we’re goin’ next.” And with that, he closed his locker and waved to Kazunari on his way out, unable to hide that he was clearly rushing. Kazunari chose not to call him out on it, giving an amicable wave in return.

While there were a few stalls near the back, a pair of sinks sitting pretty, there were no showers. An excess amount of lockers lined the walls, despite the fact there were only sixteen of them. Zone had claimed this island was “made” for them, so why was there so much of everything?

Kazunari moved forward, and opened a locker, and what do you know, it was his, or at least had his stuff. In his locker—look at that, his suede leathergrips and chalk. 

_How did I just so happen to find my locker? Something just instinctively brought me here_...  He couldn’t have been here before. He hadn’t owned a single locker in his life that he didn’t decorate. So how did he just do happen to pick the right one? 

That was a mystery he had no answers to.

The second floor was nearly entirely a basketball court, scoreboards above either hoop and a small sitting area. Directly in front of it were dumbbells, treadmills, and other classic gym equipment huddled together under Momoi—who’d made her way out of the locker room—and Riko’s observant eye. Aomine was too busy shooting baskets, not bothering to replace them in the ball cart. 

“Some mighty investigating going on,” Kazunari tittered, moving towards the girls. Riko rolled her eyes.

“We haven’t been able to go anywhere cause of this guy,” she complained, indicating Aomine. “He has the audacity to ignore me when I say it’s time to leave, and I have no clue where the hell Himuro went off to. Probably too soon to make judgements, but I really didn’t think Kise of all people would be the most reliable...” Riko had seemed to make some pretty early judgements on Hanamiya, but he carefully didn’t mention that. 

“Ah, Dai-chan is like that,” Momoi said solemnly, looking as though she was having flashbacks. “Never wants to listen to anyone but himself anymore... even Tetsu-kun, no, _even I_ have a hard time getting through to him sometimes, now.” 

Riko inclined her head curiously. “You three childhood friends?”

“Dai-chan and I are, basically since birth. We met Tetsu-kun in middle school!” As she spoke of him, Momoi’s face seemed to get pink. 

“Well well well,” Kazunari grinned, leaning towards her. “Look at those cheeks. Is that a little crush I spy?”

“Classic childhood friends to lovers,” Riko said, smiling fondly. Damn, was she crushing on a childhood friend too? Probably Kiyoshi, they seem pretty close-

“Aha-what?” Momoi stuttered unconvincingly, pulling at her hair. “No, of course- haha, what? No way! We’re just friends of course.. unless he said something to you?”

“Haven’t run into him yet, but I’ll pass on your love to him when we do!” And he immediately skipped towards Aomine, ignoring Momoi frantically following behind him. He whistled. “Nice shot.” Aomine had sunk every ball, it seemed, even though he was for some reason just... launching them with one arm? 

“Dai-chan, shoot properly,” Momoi groaned, standing in his way just as he went to grab another ball. “And I hope you’re planning on cleaning this up.”

“Damn, why the hell are you here,” he groaned, “ain’t we supposed to be looking for... stuff?”

“This sounds like a confused drug exchange.” Kazunari hummed, looking down over the railing at Kise, Himuro, and Midorima, the first of the three eagerly calling Riko down to ‘break into the infirmary’ despite Midorima’s obvious denial. 

“Not stuff, we’re supposed to be looking for a way to escape! Like radios, or maps or something to tell us where we really are.”

“Sure,” Aomine replied noncommittally, crossing his arms behind his head. “Why’re you wasting time chitchatting here, then?”

Momoi looked like she would blow a gasket. “You are the one wasting time playing basketball by yourself! I’ve been to two places already, I doubt you’ve even left this upstairs area!”

“Look at that weather,” Kazunari said to Riko, pointing at the childhood friends. “Seems there’s a storm brewing.”

“Shut up,” she replied good-naturedly, then turned to face the two. “Oi, Aomine, we’re about to get a move on soon.”

“Actually,” Aomine spoke as though he hadn’t Riko whatsoever, though with his focus on Momoi maybe he hadn’t. “I have. I had to go through all that shit downstairs to get here—“

“Oh wow, you walked across the first floor, very helpful—“

“Hey now,” Kazunari and Riko moved to get inbetween them, just in case. “Friends, remember?”

“We’re fine. Tell her to stop being so goddamn nosy.”

“I’m just telling you to clean up and  **_stop holding your teammates back _****_!_** You aren’t even trying to invest-“ She cut herself off. And then there was silence. Even all of the yelling downstairs had stopped, as if the echo of the conversation hit them as well. Aomine dropped the ball he held, a snarl frozen across his tanned features. Momoi froze right along with him, fists clenched, obviously regretting her word choice. “Search- group mates,” she breathed, “I meant group mates.” Neither of them said anything after that, still as a mountain, staring the other down.

“Yikes,” Kazunari said, and everyone’s heads snapped to him. “Uh, that’s probably not the right reaction to that, but... maybe this is a sign both groups have spent too long in here, yeah?” Even though they basically just got here.

Riko stopped holding Momoi back, sighing tiredly. “Here as in the gym, or here as in the island?” Kazunari shrugged, because both were probably true. Momoi and Aomine were always bickering like an divorced couple, but Momoi seemed to hit an extra soft spot if it really left Aomine speechless.  _Letting down teammates, was it ? _

Riko huffed, pinching her nose. “Whatever. Either way, you both need to cool off. Now.”

“Not gonna cool off out there, it’s a million degrees.” He nearly started sweating at the thought of going back under that sun. 

“Not helping,” Riko glared. She looked at Aomine. “Kise wants to rob the infirmary or something. Let’s head over before he actually starts throwing a fit, okay?” Aomine didn’t reply, but very deliberately dropped the basketball directly in front of the cart, staring at Momoi all the while, and stalked away. Riko rolled her eyes, and after putting a hand on Momoi’s shoulders, followed after him.

Kazunari looked over at her, about to ask if she needed a minute when she waved him off. “Don’t worry, Dai-chan and I fight all the time. I just... misspoke.” 

“Eh, childhood friends, I’m sure you guys have had worse arguments than that, right? Don’t beat yourself up.”

“Oh no, this is nowhere near any of our actual fights. Just some bad memories is all. Let’s-“ she cleared her throat awkwardly. “Let’s check out someplace else.”

They ran into the final group of four right in the doorway of the only unlabeled building. 

Imayoshi was leaning right on the side of the frame, apparently having a stare down with Hanamiya. 

“Jeez,” Kazunari glanced between the two, “are you guys fighting too?” 

“Who isn’t Hanamiya fighting,” Momoi whispered conspiratorially. Kazunari had to hold back a laugh as Kiyoshi turned to frown at them, overhearing. 

“No, merely a conflict of priorities,” Imayoshi turned to face them, eyes still closed like yesterday, reminding him of a snake for some reason. He idly wondered what it would take for them to open. “Ah, my apologies, I’m blocking your way, right? Come on in.” 

This place looked like a bowling alley, except maybe a hundred times more cluttered, just like everything else in this place. Black walls, floor and ceiling with horrible colorful marks at random intervals, like a child had lost their minds with markers. 

There _was_ an actual bowling alley, though with only two lanes and a shelf filled with bowling shoes. The rest looked like a game room—several tables with card sets and board games. There was one door at the very back, bright blue and labeled “Prizes.” Not to mention the atrociously obnoxious music playing nonstop. 

Akashi looked up at them from one of the tables, giving them a nod. “Has your search revealed anything helpful yet?”

“No, unfortunately,” Midorima answered. “Nothing of use to aid in escape.”

“The same can be said for ours,” said Kuroko from in front of the prize door, closing it gently behind him. “I believe we were just about to move onto the room we originally woke up in to see if there was anything we missed in our disorientation, yes?”

“Right,” Akashi confirmed. “There’s always possibility of finding a hidden door or entrance.”

Kazunari nearly grimaced with the reminder of the room they woke up in, which brought about another set of questions. Why the hell did they all wake up in coffins? 

_Maybe it’s where a body will go when someone kills._

_No—no. If someone kills. We won’t kill each other. There’s no good reason to kill when we can all work together and escape._

He inhaled sharply, just tuning back into the conversation as the other group was announcing their departure. 

“-gami-kun is quite loud. I’m sure everyone on the island got his message loud and clear.” And yes, now that he was paying attention, he could quite clearly hear Kagami yelling something in English.  Lunchtime? Pancakes? 

“Healthy set of lungs,” he said, hoping it wasn’t obvious that he completely zoned out. “Is he yelling in English to a bunch of Japanese teenagers?”

“Speaking loudly indicates healthy development in babies,” Midorima frowned, “but is quite annoying no matter the age.” 

“Babies talk?” He grinned immediately, purposely being difficult because he loved annoying people like Midorima. They were fun to rile up, with the best reactions. Midorima rolled his eyes, looking vaguely indignant. 

“Well, of course they don’t talk like we do, but they babble. Babbling frequently is a-“

“And that, gentlemen, is our cue to leave,” Hanamiya cut in snidely, brushing past Imayoshi to leave, who also left with a final sly smirk.

Kuroko’s brows furrowed slightly. “That is extremely rude, Hanamiya-kun...” 

“Unfortunately,” said Akashi, lightly patting Midorima on the shoulder as he walked past, “I believe Hanamiya has no issue withholding tact.”

“Aw,” Kazunari nudged Midorima lightly. “I wanna hear about babbling babies.” 

Midorima’s face got red, and he turned away. “No matter. Babies have nothing to do with investigating after all. I am not offended.”

“It’s okay,” Kiyoshi added kindly. “He’s probably just being a jerk because he’s scared of this whole, uh, situation.”

“That’s no good reason to be rude,” Momoi huffed. 

“It isn’t, but people deal with fear in different ways.” Midorima said wisely. 

“Wow,” Kazunari chirped as he moved to the prize door, dodging game pieces that had made their way to the ground. “So smart. Does this mean you aren’t gonna talk about babies development though?”

The Prize room looked worse than every other room on this island, and that was a serious accomplishment. 

It was in obnoxious shades of pink and yellow patterns, and the music was a million times worse. There was a gashapon machine, though the prizes bubbled up inside looked quite suspicious. Not to mention the place to put in coins was oddly sized, as if there was a specific type of coin that would only be accepted. There was also a small reception in the corner, though with nothing on it. 

“What the hell is supposed to go in there?” Kiyoshi scratched his head. “Doesn’t look like yen fit in there.”

”Maybe there’s some kind of stupid currency created for this machine specifically,” speculated Midorima. 

“We could just break into it,” suggested Kazunari. “The stuff in it looks pretty weird.” 

”Is that a toothbrush?” Momoi said, squinting through the glass. “I don’t think anything in there is worth breaking into, unless there’s a phone or radio that we can win. Honestly,  I wouldn’t put it past Zone, as some sadistic joke.”

“We shouldn’t be breaking into things in the first place,” scolded Kiyoshi, though he didn’t seem like he really cared that much. 

“We kinda broke into the infirmary,” Kazunari chuckled.

”You can’t break into a place that’s unlocked,” denied Midorima. 

“Sounds like something a criminal would say. Got something you wanna confess?”

“Wh-“ Midorima sounded flabbergasted. He gripped onto Kazunari’s headband, and he worried he would snap it in his rush to defend himself. “Don’t make idiotic jokes like that. I would not be able to become the Ultimate Doctor with a criminal record.” 

“Sounds like something an Ultimate Doctor with a criminal record would say.” 

“Wait,” said Momoi suddenly, before Midorima could retort. “Do any of you actually have criminal records? Even for something minor?” She sounded incredibly serious.

” _He_ clearly does,” Kazunari jabbed a thumb towards Midorima, who glared, “but I don’t yet.”

” _Yet_ ,” Midorima ground out. “Despite his nonsense, _no_ , I have not committed a single crime.”

”Yeah right, you telling me you’ve never jaywalked or anything?”

”That is not a proper crime!”

” _Anyways_ ,” Kiyoshi said, “I don’t have a criminal record either. Why do you ask?”

“I was hoping that could’ve been something we have in common. Like we were all brought here because we did things we shouldn’t have.”

Midorima’s eyes narrowed. “Are you saying you have a criminal record? Or Aomine?”

Her eyes widened, caught off guard. “No, no, I didn’t- no, I’m not—I don’t have a record. Da- uh, Aomine-kun doesn’t have one either.” 

Sounded incredibly fake, especially considering she had suddenly switched to calling him Aomine-kun instead of Dai-chan. 

Before he could even _consider_ whether he should call her out or not, the door to the prize room flung open, scaring everyone half to death. “Damn,” Kasamatsu laughed, glancing around at them. “I gave you guys a helluva fright, huh? I tried calling out but I guess you couldn’t hear me over this awful music. If only someone could be as loud as Kagami.”

”Something tells me this idiot might be able to give Kagami a run for his money,” Midorima quipped. Kazunari grinned widely.

“Maybe we should have a competition.”

”That most certainly was not a compliment, nor an invitation.” 

”Hey, you’re being awfully rude to the person who gave you your lucky object.” 

He was joking, but Midorima did seem slightly abashed. “I suppose.” He mumbled, so quietly that Kazunari thought he was imagining it.

”..right,” Kasamatsu said, looking at all four of them oddly. “You guys all look kind of weird. Brunch is ready. Or lunch, really, it’s almost twelve, but still. We made a lot of food. That Murasakibara kid’s real talented, and that Kagami’s right behind him. They damn near started fighting in the kitchen over who was better suited to make what dish.” He rolled his eyes. “What dumbasses, right? Sakurai looked like he’d pass out.”

”Everyone on this island is a real character alright,” Kiyoshi chuckled, shaking his head. “Well, you heard him. I’m sure everyone will relax and feel better once they get some food in them.” 

If only it could be that easy. But, who was he kidding? It could never be easy with sixteen normal _teenagers_ , let alone sixteen colorful Ultimates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and now that all of the current introductions and investigations are finished, we can move properly into daily life, friendships, motives and murder and working together because no one is going to kill, right ?


	4. chapter one - kalopsia - daily life (1.2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Findings are shared, opinions are given, and Kuroko needs to stop being so loud. Also, for people who are supposed to be working together, they can’t go five seconds without bickering.

There was _way_ too much food, even for sixteen whole people.

Everyone was here, sans Akashi’s group and Kasamatsu, who went to retrieve them as well. 

But back to the main point. There was no way all of this could be eaten, no matter how hungry they were. Not even on the table—on actual carts, were all assortments of pastries. Tarts, pies, croissants-

“Pancakes.” Kagami repeated firmly in English, evidently his recently acquired catchphrase. 6 stacks of American style pancakes were in front of him alone.

“Pancakes,” repeated Murasakibara in Japanese, except with a similarly ridiculous amount of okonomiyaki in front of him. Kazunari moved to grab a handful of croissants, deciding not to join in on the disaster this was likely to become. 

Himuro grinned. “Y’all havin’ an eatin’ contest?”

“Yeah right,” drawled Aomine, deciding to join in with another 6 stacks. “Not gonna be much of a contest with _me_ here.”

“What the hell’s going on here,” Riko shook her head, “why is there so much food? And _all_ of it is unhealthy.”

Murasakibara pouted. “It’s pastries...”

“Don’t worry,” Kiyoshi laughed, putting a hand on her back. “I’m sure we can take care of it all and exercise it off.”

As people began to get settled with their food and drinks (using the straws they had pulled earlier thanks to Momoi) Akashi’s group came in, with something in hand. 

“Hey, looks like something came out of this search after all!” Kise smirked from around a crossaint. “What do you have?”

“It’s not something useful quite yet,” Kuroko said.

“Does anyone have something of significance from their search?” Akashi asked.

“I-I know we weren’t r-really searching, b-but... Th-there were a lot of w-w-weapons in the kitchen,” Sakurai whispered into his food, which Aomine was very unsubtly trying to steal off his plate. 

Kagami scratched his neck. “Yeah. There are definitely a fuckton of knives. As in there are literally three knife blocks _and_ a knife drawer.”

“Rather excessive,” Momoi frowned.

“Of course it is,” Imayoshi purred. “I’m sure the intent is for us to take advantage of the bountiful assortments and kill.”

Midorima hummed. “Perhaps we ought to get rid of them.”

“How can I make food without any knives.“ Murasakibara said petulantly. 

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he sputtered in return. “Of course we need to keep _some_.” 

“Speaking of,” said Kiyoshi pointedly, “we also found something dangerous.”

“Yes. In the infirmary, there are a disturbing amount of poisons.”

“And antidotes,” Kazunari added hastily.

“Yes, and antidotes.”

“Perhaps it would be in our best interest to get rid of the poisons,” Akashi nodded.

“Yeah! We can dump ‘em out in the ocean or somethin’.” Kagami agreed. Kasamatsu shook his head.

“We can’t. The rules say no dumping shit in the ocean-“

“Who gives a damn what the rules say?”

“Don’t interrupt your senior, brat-“

“Why should we listen to those dumbass rules!”

“Because,” entered Zone’s voice from nowhere. “Not adhering to the rules results in punishment.”

“Oho,” Riko smirked. “You realize you’ll have to show your face to give us a punishment, yes? It will be sixteen against one.”

“Who says I’m just **one**?” 

Chilling silence. It made sense. All this work to transport sixteen people, set up an entire island with rooms specified, however much food stocked in the kitchen, without anyone knowing—there was _no way_ this could be a one man job.

“And,” Zone sang joyously, “who says I have to show my face to punish you?” A sharp sound, then a slot opened in the wall, revealing a—

“Is that a _gun_?!” 

A huge gatling gun, aimed directly at Riko, a threatening whirring sound emitting through the room. 

“It’s automatic!” Zone continued, uncaring of the fearful atmosphere. “And they’re all over the place! So if you decide you want to be above the rules, you’ll get a fitting punishment.” 

Kiyoshi bravely moved in front of Riko, fully shielding her and some others with his large stature. “We understand. We’re not going to dump the poison, or break any other rules. You can put that away.”

“Teppei-“ started Riko, but he shushed her just as quickly. 

“I’m glad you understand, my darling students!” The gun slid back into the wall just as easily as it popped out, no indication it even existed in the first place. It was silent for a long time.

“I-I think Zone is g-gone now...” Sakurai peeked our from where he hid beneath the table. He certainly wasn’t the only one. 

Kagami looked pale, cursing in English. “Where the hell did that even come from?” No one had an answer for him.

“Then... if we cannot get rid of the poisons,” Midorima swallowed, trying to get them back on track, “we should just hide them.”

“Yeah,” Riko said quietly, though her eyes had not left Kiyoshi who had finally sat down heavily. “And the knives.”

“Do you really think so?” Hanamiya spoke up, twirling a strand of his lengthy hair. “What if the people who hide it decide to use them?”

Kuroko gave him a hard stare. “Do you truly believe we should drop all kinds of precautions for them?”

“Well yeah! Who are we to stop anyone that wants to kill?”

Kasamatsu looked horrified. “What?!”

“Serial killer alert,” Kazunari whispered under his breath. Kuroko knocked his elbow lightly, blue eyes still focused on Hanamiya.

“What is this dude talking about,” Aomine said aloud. 

“What _are_ you talking about, Hanamiya?” Kiyoshi said, gripping his fork tightly. 

“I mean, let’s use our brains here. So what if we hide all the knives, or poison? Not like that’s the only way to kill.”

“While plausible, that is not the point,” started Akashi, though Hanamiya was clearly not done.

“Will we hide the ocean too, so that nobody drowns? Maybe even forbid using any stairs so no one gets pushed down!”

“You can’t hide an entire ocean,” drawled Murasakibara, evidently missing the point he was trying to make.

“Hanamiya,” Kiyoshi’s patience was obviously wearing thin. “You’re going too far.”

“Or, or, if you don’t like any of those options,” Hanamiya continued, still smiling away, “we can cut everybody’s hands off! That way no one can strangle, or push, or stab—“

“Hanamiya.” Kuroko’s cold voice rang out, the sudden lack of honorifics from someone so polite impacting the whole room. “You seem to be pushing _very_ hard for a murder to occur.”

“What would you suggest, then?” Akashi said, trying to mediate but not seeming all that invested, if the cold way he looked at Hanamiya gave any indication. “You seem very invested in trying to cause discourse.”

“I’m just saying,” Hanamiya narrowed his eyes towards Kiyoshi and Kuroko, “weren’t you guys trying to do all that sappy trust shit? If you think we should be _hiding_ weapons, you clearly don’t trust the people here like you say you do.”

“Some people were trying to rely on just trust,” Kiyoshi admitted heatedly. “I certainly would like to think I can trust my friends. But I understand that isn’t a good enough basis to-“

“ _Friends_?” Hanamiya guffawed, though there was no mirth in his eyes. “We’ve barely met each other. Maybe you know Riko, but you don’t know anyone else here. Here for one day together, and you’re already trying to call a group of strangers friends.” 

Kiyoshi clenched his fists, looking down. “ _I know you too_ , Hanamiya...” he said quietly. Riko looked at him, questioning.

“I dunno what kinda issues you obviously grew up with,” Himuro said snidely, either not hearing the interaction or not caring, “but we all got somethin’ in common. We’re all trapped here. Bein’ at each otha’s throats is just goin’ to make everyone miserable. That’s enough reason to be allies, at least. You don’t gotta act like trust is impossible.” _Damn... he went personal. Maybe there’s a viciousness under that pretty boy persona._

Hanamiya, seemingly miffed by the ‘issues’ comment, sneered as he slinked towards the exit. “If you all want to play buddy-buddy like buffoons, or hide everything for the sake of fake caution, be my guest. Don’t cry when you end up betrayed by your _friends_.”

The doors slammed shut, only adding to the tense air. “That didn’t go well,” Kazunari said in the silence. He had to wonder why the hell everyone here seemed to have such difficult personalities. Maybe it comes with being an Ultimate. 

“No,” Akashi sighed, “it did not.”

Kiyoshi stood up suddenly, moving quickly towards the door. He grabbed Hanamiya’s untouched plate as he went by. “I’m going to try to talk to him. Maybe we can reach a compromise. It would do no good to have him walking around in such a mindset...” Riko stared after him, and with a small hesitation, gave a quick wave to the room at large and followed Kiyoshi.

“I did not intend for my initial suggestion to cause such strife,” Midorima frowned, pushing up his glasses as he looked away.

“Now, I don’t wanna agree with Hanamiya,” Himuro had calmed down, leaning back in his chair, “Too many precautions is a bad thing. More likely to get people worked up, if they’re feelin’ too restricted, y’know? Like, I definitely don’t wanna be stuck with a group all day like when we was lookin’ around.”

“Understandable,” Akashi nodded. “I would also prefer to have some alone time. Then, does anyone have ideas on what to do about the many knives and poison?”

“Maybe we shouldn’t hide them,” Momoi said hesitantly. “Hiding them kind of does signify that we don’t trust each other.” 

“A sign of great faith. Are there any disagreements?” No one spoke up. “I suppose that’s it, then. If only we had come to that decision before Hanamiya ran off.”

“I don’t think he said that to be helpful,” sighed Kuroko. 

“Yeah,” Aomine shrugged. “He was being way too condescending.”

“Wow,” Kuroko tilted his head. “When did you learn that word, Aomine-kun?” 

“Oi, Testu!”

Kuroko allowed a tiny smile to take over. Kagami laughed heartily, and Aomine turned to him. “Shut up! Like you know what it means!”

“What? Of course I know! _You_ shut up!”

Momoi smirked. “Boys, boys, you’re both pretty.”

“Okay,” Akashi said firmly enough that the conversation stopped, but the corners of his lips twitched up. The mood had lifted greatly with Kuroko’s jab, many now openly smiling or less tense. “Nothing of note came out of the other places?” 

“Just the gashapon machine,” Kazunari volunteered. 

“Right!” Momoi smiled. “There were a lot of random prizes in there. Maybe there’s a way to win a radio or something, if we can figure what coins go in there... so I guess it’s not that helpful right now,” she deflated.

Kuroko shook his head. “Dont worry about it Momoi-san. I’m sure it will be useful in the future.” Momoi’s face went pink as her hair, and she smiled dazedly. Aomine gagged. 

Akashi stood up. “There are 16 Ultimates here. It’s impossible that there aren’t people looking for us. The most logical option now would certainly be to create signals in case a plane or helicopter were to fly over.”

Kise lit up. “Oh, like a signal fire! Or building SOS out of sticks!” 

“Yes. Though considering I’ve never heard of Teiko Island before, it is likely that we are somewhere entirely remote. Therefore if too much time passes with nothing fruitful, I suggest we build a raft.”

“I have an axe in my room!” At the somewhat disturbed looks, Kagami quickly rectified, “because I’m the Ultimate Firefighter! Just in case I gotta break down a door during a fire or somethin’ y’know!”

“I’m sure the people who put us here had more nefarious intentions about that axe,” Imayoshi said so quietly he almost didn’t hear it. If anyone else did, they chose not to comment.

“Oh shit—er, shoot.” Kasamatsu looked up from his food curiously. “I almost forgot. When I was going around to get everybody—“

“By yourself. Which is exactly what we weren’t supposed to do,” Imayoshi smirked.

Kasamatsu remained unruffled. “Well, since everyone else was going to be in groups I wouldn’t have to worry about anyone attacking me. Also, no offense, but even if someone broke off by themselves and _did_ attack me, I think I could take incapacitate them easily enough. Anyways, when I was trying to find the groups, I looked through the hotel. There’s an extra door on the Miracle floor that’s unlabeled. Thought it was kind of weird that it was locked.” 

“That might help with what we found.” Kuroko held up a small brass key, finally revealing what they had walked in with. “It was inside one of the caskets. We believed it was useless before, as Zone claimed there should be no locked doors.”

“Oh!” Kagami got even more excited. “It might go to the roof! That could be a good place to put a signal.” At the various sounds of approval, Kagami grinned. “All right!! I’ll get right on it!” Then, as everyone watched in a mix of fascination and disgust, Kagami proceeded to devour the final stacks of pancakes as easily as if they were chips.

“Oi!” Shouted Aomine. “Damn cheater! You don’t get a head start!” And began digging into his own absurdly filled plate. _They’re actually having an eating competition?_ Murasakibara followed, though he seemed more interesting in simply eating than joining in on whatever weird food competition was happening.

Despite the fact that almost everyone ate well—consequences of not eating at all yesterday—somehow Aomine and Kagami managed to do most of the work in eating all of the food despite the other ravenous students.

(Kagami finished rest of Kuroko’s plate for him in less than 10 seconds, even after eating 6 stacks of pancakes. “Truly horrifying,” Kuroko murmured. Everyone agreed.)

Kazunari stretched out in the sun, giving a brief glance to the basketball statue. He really had no idea what to make of this so called Killing Field Trip. _Or whatever the hell Zone said._

Mostly everyone had left the cafe—the few unfortunate souls who stayed behind to take care of the dishes chosen by straws once more—and were just wandering about, some going to the hotel, or just to hang out near the beach. A few people went to go check out the door to the roof, too.

_I guess were having free time now... wonder what I should do. I could go look around some more... or I could bug someone._

He found that he didn’t really want to be alone right now, and of course, he can’t say no to the temptation of talking. _I think I’ll go bother everyone on the roof._

Sure enough, just like Kasamatsu said, there was an extra unlabeled door on the Miracle floor, completely opposite the elevator. Through it, and up a small set of stairs revealed the roof and the two people on it. 

“Damn,” Kazunari said. “Looks like there’s no need to build a signal fire.”

Because right there in the middle of the roof was a bonfire. Unlit, but the logs were all there, with a square glass panel surrounding it on all sides along with the benches. Far away, he could see what looked like a bar. As in an actual bar with alcohol. 

“Yeah. But why the hell’s there a bonfire set up in this heat?”

“It probably gets much cooler at nighttime, Kagami-kun,” Kuroko answered calmly. “It was fine this morning.”

“Eh, I guess that’s true enough. I guess it’ll work though, if we add a few more logs and somethin’ to light it with. What’re you doin’ up here, Takao?”

“Just here to hang out, at first, but now I think I’m gonna take my time at the bar over there.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said! Kuroko shot me down.”

“It is not wise to get drunk on a roof,” Kuroko sighed. “And none of us are of age to consume alcohol.”

“But do you see any adults around,” Kazunari winked. “No one’s checking IDs.” Moving past the benches to the bar, he could see several glasses shoved into shelves behind the counter alongside a few bottles of alcohol. And behind the counter was a long cooler, holding-

“The mother lode!” Kazunari whistled. There was a ridiculous amount of alcohol—he could see wine, whisky, vodka—you name it, it was there, stacked in rows upon rows.

Kagami cursed. “What the hell! I didn’t expect there to be that much.”

“Yes,” Kuroko agreed. “It’s odd that this much alcohol be given to unsupervised students.”

“Who cares!” Kazunari cheered. “Free booze! Kagami, how much do you think you could drink?”

“Is that even a question, man? I could finish that all in a day!”

“I’m sure you could, Kagami-kun,” Kuroko shook his head impassively. “But I don’t think that would be wise, unless you want to have alcohol poisoning.”

Kagami laughed. “Definitely not. Anyways, I shouldn’t put too much alcohol in my body anyways.” He thumped a fist against his chest, obviously muscled despite the shirt in the way. “Don’t wanna ruin the machine!”

“Oh yeah, you’re the Ultimate Firefighter, right? Pretty young, aren’t you?” 

Kagami chuckled nervously. “About that... happened by accident. Back when I lived in America, my neighbor left her iron on and her house set on fire. I was sleepin’ over with my friend there, woke up because of the smoke. Helped his mom get out of the house, but he was stuck inside the bathroom. Support beam fell and blocked the door or somethin’, the details are kinda hazy now. Didn’t fully realize at the time, but the house structure was completely fallin’ apart. I wasn’t even really thinkin’. I kicked down the door and got him out.”

“The world was crumbling around you,” Kazunari started, enthralled. “And you didn’t even notice. That must’ve been some friend.”

“Yeah,” he responded nostalgically, lost in memory. “He is. Anyways, the firefighters came just as I was walking’ out with Tat-er, my friend I mean, over my shoulder. Thought I had some promise and took me in as an... intern, I guess? Quickest version of the story, at least.”

“That’s very brave, Kagami-kun,” Kuroko said blankly, though there was clearly some admiration in his tone. Kagami looked bashful. “Most people would merely choose to call for authorities, rather than go back in themselves, especially if they aren’t family.”

“I mean, I consider Tatsuya to be family,” Kagami said, then froze and stuttered. “I mean, H-Himuro—er, not Himuro, the–the neighbor’s kid. My old friend.”

“So you and Himuro _do_ know each other!” Kazunari said triumphantly. Kagami blanched.

“How’d you know?!”

“Kagami-kun,” Kuroko said, a hint of judgement in his voice. “You both have similar American accents, and wear the same ring on a necklace. It isn’t hard to put the pieces together.”

Kagami deflated. “Yeah, that’s true. Himuro and I met in America, through a basketball game. Then we found out we were neighbors. Funny, huh...” Though he was no longer smiling.

Kazunari tilted his head. “Why did you want to hide that you know each other? There are a lot of childhood friends here, I think.”

“We haven’t... we lost touch... officially, after I left for Japan. Yesterday was the first time I’ve seen him in a while. Tatsuya thought it was better to hide that we knew each other here... Anyways,” Kagami pumped his fist. “What the hell are we doin’ with such a sad atmosphere?”

“You created the sad atmosphere,” Kuroko quipped playfully. 

“Yeah, man,” Kazunari joined in. “You went from badass to sadass.” 

“Oi, why are both of y’all messin’ with me now! C’mere!” 

Kazunari shrieked, and evening thought he heard Kuroko give a small squeak as Kagami started chasing them around the rooftop. Probably not the safest thing to do, but it got all their minds off the island and the sadness of a lost connection between friends.

“Why do you keep going after _me,_ ” Kazunari drawled out petulantly, circling around the bar with Kagami.

“Cause Kuroko keeps disappearing! I dunno where the hell he is!”

“What do mean?” Kazunari laughed. “He’s literally right behind you.”

Kagami frowned, turned and sure enough, there was Kuroko looking mischievous. Kagami immediately jumped and screamed, backing away. “Damn it, Kuroko! Stop doin’ that!”

“Doing what, Kagami-kun?” Kuroko parroted innocently. 

“Usin’ that misdirection shit on me! Why’d you do it to me and not Takao!”

“Misdirection?” Kazunari questioned, leaning against the bar. 

“Yes,” Kuroko sat down on a barstool, swinging his legs gently. “I am surprised you seem to keep track of me so well, Takao-kun. My misdirection... it’s essentially my constant magic trick. It’s a technique that diverts a person’s gaze, which allows me to disappear, I suppose. It is increased due to my weaker presence in general.”

“Damn... that’s a ghost superpower. Isn’t a magician not supposed to reveal his secrets?”

“Who said that was a secret?” Kuroko smirked ever so slightly. Kazunari whistled at him.

“Shit, so that’s how it works? That’s pretty cool,” Kagami looked impressed. “Why the hell doesn’t it work on Takao?”

Kazunari hummed. “Maybe...” he went on to explain his hawkeye, how it allowed him to see everything around him, about the span of a basketball court. “So I guess my attention can’t really be misdirected if I’m seeing everything. I’m always noticing you, Kuroko! I guess that makes us natural enemies, huh.”

“Nonsense... just adds a little friendly competition.” Kazunari laughed heartily, patting Kuroko on the back as he agreed. “It would be interesting to try and use my magic tricks on someone who isn’t effected by my misdirection.” A clear offer was there, and he took it with a broad grin. 

“I’m always up for magic.”

“No fair,” Kagami grumbled, crossing his arms. “I wanna be able to spoil Kuroko’s scares.” 

The trio kept chatting and horsing around for a bit. Kazunari liked to think they had gotten that much closer. 

Up until Kiyoshi burst in through the door, eyes wide.

“Uh oh,” Kagami sighed out in English, still smiling. “Here comes the fun police.”

“What’s going on?” He questioned, looking calmer now. “I thought I heard a shriek or scream or something?”

Kazunari nodded towards their blue haired companion. “That was all Kuroko. He’s real loud.”

“Right?” Kagami agreed, playing along. “I think everyone in space heard him.”

Kuroko narrowed his eyes at the two of them. “There’s no sound in space.”

Kiyoshi blinked. “Wouldn’t expect that out of Kuroko.”

Kazunari smirked. “That just means you’re extra loud! And don’t worry, we were just messing around.”

Kiyoshi looked vaguely sheepish. “Sorry, bit of an overreaction I guess. On edge after this morning.”

Kagami held up a hand. “Ah, that’s alright. I oughta be lookin’ for somethin’ to light the fire with anyways.”

_Guess hang out time’s over,_ he thought _. No alcohol for now._

He looked down at the time on his e-handbook. He had a little bit more time until dinner—he actually didn’t know if they were planning to meet up for it or if it was every man for themselves—so he figured he might as well check out his area in the gym like he wanted when they were investigating. 

He made it to the front of the gym, seeing a group loitering in front of it. He could hear Kasamatsu talking even from across the way.

“I’ve got an idea,” Kasamatsu said, looking excited as he held a fist in front of his chest. “Why don’t we have some self-defense training?” 

“Oho,” Imayoshi tilted his head back, a hand in front of his mouth. “You believe we need self-defense? Weren’t you one of the people firmly stating there would be no murder attempts?”

That got Kasamatsu even more fired up. “Of course there won’t be! No one’s going to kill!” He simmered down, looking away with a hand pressing against his ribs. “That’s what I want to believe. But that won’t stop people from feeling scared, and people will do all kinds of stupid things when they’re scared.”

“And you believe that teaching self-defense is a way to dissuade potential fear,” Midorima inclined his head. Kazunari noticed he was still holding the headband. _I should probably ask him what that’s about later._

“How interesting, that you would choose to teach self-defense rather than keep such techniques to yourself.” Imayoshi said quietly, though it was enough to attract Kasamatsu’s attention. 

“I mean, it’s the least I could do... why is that so interesting to you?”

“Why, because then you would have almost guaranteed that you wouldn’t be murdered. No one would dare try to kill such a formidable opponent. Though perhaps you’re unlikely to be murdered anyways, as the Ultimate Kickboxer, you are unlikely to lose a fight even if you are caught by surprise by someone who has been relatively trained.”

“I don’t have to worry about anyone attacking me, because no one’s going to do that! This is just to-“

”Isn’t it dangerous to assume that no one is?”

Kise cut in, “isn’t it also dangerous to assume that everyone is? That kind of paranoia isn’t good either. You’re bound to get wrinkles.

”I must agree,” sighed Akashi. “While it may be too soon to assume so, I doubt being able to leave the island is a big enough motive to make someone take a life.”

Kasamatsu nodded aggressively. “Yeah! So quit talking like that, ya hear?! You’re starting to sound like Hanamiya.”

Imayoshi shrugged with an sly look on his face. “Hmm.. I was merely making an observation. No need to get so bent out of shape, _kiddo_.” Kazunari didn’t know Kasamatsu very well, but even he could guess that the guy would not respond well to being called a kid. He was kinda short, though.

Kasamatsu’s face heated immediately. “Who the hell do you think you’re calling _kiddo_? I’m a damn third year!” Really? Kazunari thought. _Never would’ve guessed that... but then why were they referred to as being in the same class?_

“I am also a third year. My apologies,” Imayoshi said smoothly, sounding like he really wasn’t sorry at all. “I was unaware that was such a sore spot for you.” With the way he was smirking, it seemed like he did know and was reveling in Kasamatsu’s anger. 

Akashi cut in quickly, giving Imayoshi a look. “Regardless of ages, Kasamatsu has a very good idea. That would certainly facilitate team bonding, as well as learning-“

”Jeez, Akashicchi!” Kise chuckled. “You don’t have to speak so formally.”

If Akashi was bothered by being interrupted, he hid it well. “Force of habit. Anyways, when would you like to begin these sessions?”

Kasamatsu scratched his neck, calmed down. “Uh, tomorrow I guess? That way we don’t have to hunt down everyone today. We can just tell them over breakfast tomorrow.”

“Good idea.” Akashi turned to Kazunari, who had to made it to the doors, giving him a friendly nod. Kazunari smiled back, waving.

”You guys having a secret powwow?”

”Of course not. It would be inconvenient to track down everyone right now. The island is quite big.”

”I get it. For the record, I think the self defense training’s a good idea too,” Kazunari laughed. “Can’t wait to get my ass kicked.”

Kasamtsu grinned. “Don’t worry, I won’t go too hard on anyone who’s never done that type of training before.”

”Hey,” Kise said, “have you seen Kurokocchi?”

”Oh yeah,” Kazunari had gotten distracting by the chatting, he forgot he had left Kagami and Kuroko to go inside the gym. “He and Kagami were going to look for something to start the signal fire on the roof.” 

“I see,” Akashi nodded his thanks while Kise ran off immediately, grinning without a word. At some point during the second half, Imayoshi had managed to slip away. 

Things were luckily more relaxed inside of the gym. 

Kazunari was able to pretty peacefully practice one of his old floor routines. He could hear the sound of basketballs bouncing from the second floor, and heard a voice that sounded suspiciously like Momoi’s. Eventually, Kasamatsu entered the gym too, going for the boxing dummies after he warmed up. 

“Real loud up there,” Kazunari said offhandedly. 

Kasamatsu scoffed. “Yeah. Basketball’s supposed to be loud, but there are only two people up there. How the hell is there so much noise?”

”I can hear Momoi. I’m guessing Aomine too?” He wasn’t able to see the second floor with his hawkeye—it was too far separated. 

Kasamatsu rolled his eyes. “Of course. When are those two not together despite how much time they spend arguing?”

He laughed in response. “I swear I would think they were in the middle of a divorce or something.” He wondered idly if those two actually did have some kind of past together.

He spent the rest of his time until dinner hanging out in the gym, practicing different sets and admiring Kasamatsu as he trained by himself both in against dummies and in the ring. Momoi and Aomine—mostly Momoi—also took time to chat with them while they all took breaks.

“Hey,” he mentioned at some point, “are we supposed to meet up for dinner or something? Or are we only having breakfast meetings?”

Kasamatsu wiped the sweat from his brow. “I dunno, to be honest... based on what Akashi said before I’m guessing only breakfast as of right now. Makes sense at least, cause it gives us a morning announcement.” 

“Speaking of announcements, do you know what time it is? If the cafe closes after the nighttime one, we won’t be able to get food.” 

Kasamatsu checked his handbook from the ground, rearing back slightly once he looked at it. “It’s almost 8.” 

“8?! Seriously?” Had he really been in the gym for _that_ long? Sure, he was really tired and sweaty, but that would’ve meant he’d been here for hours. He looked out the window and yup, it’s definitely not light outside anymore. “Damn... talk about time flying.”

Momoi’s head peeked from over the railing. “8? Did I hear someone say it’s 8?!”

”Was I really that loud?”

She smiled slightly. “A little. Not as bad as Kagami, though. That means nighttime starts in 2 hours, right? Now’s probably a good time to get dinner.

Kazunari debated putting his top layer of clothes back on top of his leotard—he was much sweatier than before, and he didn’t want make himself warmer. Then again, he didn’t want to walk around in just his leotard and sandals. In the end he decided to go halfway, putting his sweatpants back on and tying his sweater around his waist.

They made it to the cafe, the night thankfully much cooler. Only a few people were milling about there already. Surprisingly enough, Kiyoshi, Riko, and _Hanamiya_ were sitting together at the barstools. He could see Akashi and Kuroko sitting outside of the sliding glass doors.

“Wow,” he whispered, “didn’t think I’d see _that_ today.” 

“That’s a good thing! Maybe they’ll be able to convince Hanamiya to be a little less... provoking.”

“Somehow, I don’t see that happening,” Kasamatsu shook his head, “but it’s nice to hope, even if unrealistic.”

“I’ve been trying to get Dai-chan to be less aggressive for years.”

“Oi, shut up, Satsuki!”

“Case in point.” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kasamatsu getting very red, looking pointedly away from Momoi. _Interesting_.

They grabbed some food—finding a nearly finished cake that Murasakibara had probably made sometime earlier—and sat back down together at the table, letting the three at the kitchen window have their space. All got something simple to make, too tired for cooking something extravagant like brunch. 

They idly chattered as they ate—mostly contributed by Momoi and Kazunari. 

“So, I don’t think I really got it from our first meeting. What’s your Ultimate, Aomine?”

“He’s the Ultimate Hunter,” Momoi said quickly.

“Damn you,” Aomine said through a mouthful of instant ramen. “I’m the Ultimate Basketball Player.”

“No you are not. The title they gave you-“

“Fuck their titles. I know what I am.”

“Fight the system,” Kazunari tittered unhelpfully. 

Momoi glared at him exasperatedly. “Don’t encourage him. Regardless of whatever title he wants to be called, he’s _officially_ known as the Ultimate Hunter.”

“It should be basketball player,” Aomine grunted unhappily. “The only one who can beat me in basketball is me.”

“That’s a shitty attitude.” 

The air was stupefied for a moment, as all eyes turned to Kasamatsu, who was firmly staring at Aomine, a strange determination set in a deep frown on his lips.

“Haah?! You wanna say that again?”

“Sure. That’s a shitty attitude, and it’s pissing me off. There’s _always_ gonna be someone who can beat you, Ultimate or not. That kind of mindset and arrogance destroys teams.”

Aomine glowered. “I don’t need a team. They’ll only hold me back.”

“Basketball is a team sport. If you can’t be a team player, then _no wonder you can’t be the Ultimate Basketball Player._ ”

_Yikes. Getting along is going to be few and far between on this island..._

Aomine stood up, hands on the table and ramen nearly tipping over. Kasamatsu didn’t rise, but tensed in his seat, ready to spring up.

“Dude,” Kazunari said placatingly, “I really don’t think you should be trying to fight the Ultimate Kickboxer. That’s just _asking_ for disappointment, and a few bruises.”

“You heard the guy,” Aomine grinned sharply. “There’s always gonna be someone who can beat you.”

“Yeah, someone will get beat. Literally.”

“Hey,” Momoi lit up, holding her hands out calmly. “Why don’t we settle this with an actual basketball game?”

“Sure. Let’s go.”

“No, Dai-chan. It’s too late for that now. I mean tomorrow.”

“Fine,” Aomine bit out, surprisingly flopping down in his chair as if all the energy he had melted into lethargy just as quickly. 

“You’re on. We can talk about it at breakfast tomorrow.” 

“Seem real confident you can beat me. I’m excited to knock that outta you.”

“Not about confidence that I’ll beat you. It’s confidence that someone is able to beat you, whether they’re on this island or somewhere else in the world.”

“Everything okay over there?” Kiyoshi called out. The three at the kitchen window were staring at them, likely attracted by Aomine’s almost yelling.

“I think everything’s settled for now,” Momoi glanced at the two in question. “Right, boys?”

“Don’t call me boy,” both boys said at the exact same time. They gave each other weirded out looks nearly immediately after. 

“See, why all the bickering? You’re already more alike than you thought.”

“Aw,” Hanamiya grinned. “Did I miss all the fighting? How disappointing.” Riko and Kiyoshi gave him twin disapproving looks.

“I wonder,” Kazunari said, standing up to clean up his area haphazardly, “if we will ever be able to spend time as a group without at least one argument popping up.” _I can’t imagine how many fights might spring up during a basketball game...Everyone here is probably really competitive. Including me._

“Of course not,” Riko huffed. “There are mostly boys on this island. Too much testosterone and pride to function.”

And, of course, that sprung up a new round of bickering full of denials and claims of other people are just stupid.’ Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Hanamiya sneaking out of the door. Before Hanamiya could fully exit, as loud static sound tore angrily through the air, everyone cringing and covering ears.

“ ** _Good evening, students! I hope you’re all enjoying your vacation. It is now 10PM, which means it’s nighttime! The cafe, gym, and morgue are closed, so please make you way to the exit if you’re in one. Since it’s your first day of being in those rooms, you get a warning. From now on, though... anyways, good night, sleep tight, don’t let any killers strike!_** ” With another sharp sound, Zone’s announcement went away, leaving discomfort in its wake. No one wanted to be reminded of the killing game.

Not wanting to recreate the gun fiasco from this morning, they all made their way out of the cafe quickly, giving tense goodnights. He watched as Kiyoshi and Riko made their way towards the beach, while the majority just made their way back to the hotel. Kazunari considered going to the game center or infirmary, but—

_Wait. Infirmary. Damn, that guy still has my headband!_

_Jeez_ , Kazunari thought, _this is the third time I’ve traveled up to the Miracle floor today_. Once in the morning to give Midorima his headband, then to get to the roof, and _again_ to get his headband back. _I don’t know why, but I get the feeling I’ll be seeing this floor a lot..._

The doors opened, and he was back to the unusually dark Miracle floor. Scanning around until he found Midorima’s door—it was one away from the elevator—he rang the doorbell, waiting for an answer. He knew the guy was in there—he had checked his location on his e-handbook. 

_Maybe he won’t open the door because he thinks you’re here to murder him. Or maybe he’ll murder_ you _, in this dark hallway._

“No thanks,” Kazunari said to his thoughts out loud, which was unfortunately also the exact time the door before him opened.

“Excuse me?” 

“You’re excused. Or, uh,” Kazunari ran a hand through his hair. “I mean. Hey there.”

“...hello.” 

Talk about awkward. “So... do you still need my headband, or...”

“Ah, I see. The day is not over yet, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. I’ll be in my room anyways.” Without another word, Midorima retreated back into his room, leaving him slightly confused. Was he going to go get it, or was that him saying to go away?

Leaning a little closer, he could see that Midorima had left his door slightly ajar, and was immediately hit with a strong compulsion, a grin overtaking his face. And because Kazunari was nothing if not impulsive, took the golden opportunity to invite himself into the room. Inside, he could see that the room looked exactly like his, though instead of still rings for his talent, Midorima had a dead body on a table. His bed, unlike Kazunari’s, was only a twin, and was pushed as close to the wall as possible to make room for a futon, almost directly in front of the dead body. 

_Wait. Holy shit._

“Holy shit,” Kazunari breathed, staring. Had Midorima actually killed someone to escape? _Already_?! Did he just walk into the room of a murderer like an idiot? And because he still has no sense of self-preservation, instead of running out of the room like a sensible person, he keeps talking. “You killed someone?” _Subtle, Kazunari. Real smart. Now you’re screwed._

Startling, Midorima’s head turned sharply from the nightstand he was standing at. He flushed angrily. “Why on Earth are you **inside** my room?” 

“Wait,” Kazunari said, getting closer to the body even as his heart raced and his legs wanted to run, because still, no self-preservation. He hoped Midorima didn’t kill him for being a witness. “Who is that?!” Because he certainly didn’t recognize them. 

“I-It’s nobody, idiot! It’s a cadaver!”

“A who?” 

Still fuming, Midorima finally faced him with the headband gripped tightly. “Not a who. A what. A cadaver. Used by medical students to study anatomy, dissection, causes of death and the like. It was put it in here for my _talent_. Not that it is any of your business. Why are you in here?”

“Your door was open,” Kazunari responded childishly, sighing in relief that he hadn’t walked in on a murder. His heart rate slowed. “Oh, those. Aren’t they from actual corpses, though? Don’t they smell? Or decompose?”

“Idiot,” Midorima said again, because evidently he couldn’t think of anything else. Kazunari guesses that was kind of fair. “They are preserved and embalmed. And this is not an actual cadaver, merely a mannequin—why am I even—leave my room this instant!”

“I don’t know about that now,” Kazunari snickered, still slightly on edge but certainly more at ease. “You gotta tell me about cadavers. And mannequins.” 

“Absolutely not!” 

“Why,” Kazunari questioned absently, reaching out to poke its foot. It was soft like an actual person’s. Gross. Midorima stalked to him, scandalized. 

“ _Don’t_ touch that!” Midorima shoved the headband in front of Kazunari’s chest. “Here! Now you can leave.” 

Kazunari, despite fearing Midorima to be a murderer about 10 seconds ago and being slightly put off by the human cadaver, was having too much fun now. Midorima has gotten worked up so, so easily. And oh! He had a perfect idea of how to mess with him even more. _He’ll hate this._

“But _**Shin-chan**_ ,” he whined, “how am I supposed to learn all about cadavers if I leave now?” 

Shintarou looked even more affronted, if possible, though there was something else in his eyes that looked almost nostalgic. “Shin–Who gave you permission to use such an informal nickname? Do not call me that. Leave at once!” Shintarou moved again, but Kazunari was too quick, skipping around the table. Now that he had started, Kazunari wondered if he should try getting away with giving _everyone_ on the island a nickname—Kise seemed to be doing it to certain people.

“That doesn’t sound like sweet, sweet cadaver talk to me, Shin-chan.” The green haired teen looked like a machine close to overheating and destructing, so Kazunari decided to back off a little and change the subject. Just a little. “Okay, okay, okay. No mannequin lessons today. I got it. What about lucky object lessons?” 

“Lucky item.”

“Tomatoes tomatoes. Why’d you need my headband to be a lucky item?”

“Shouldn’t that have been something you asked earlier?” Shintarou sighed, crossing his arms. “Lucky items prescribed by Oha-Asa.“

“Who’s that?” At Shintarou’s reluctance, he kept pushing. While he had fun messing with people, he also enjoying befriending them, and that required getting them to open up. “If you tell me, I’ll leave.”

“Horoscopes. Oha-Asa reveals rankings of the signs for each day, as well as the item the signs need to carry with them to maximize fate. Cancer ranked much lower than preferable, therefore it was important I received my lucky item _before_ I left my room. Today, Cancer’s lucky item just so happened to be a bright yellow headband.” With that, he offered the item in question up again. Kazunari took it, hoping he didn’t look as confused as he felt. “Man proposes, God disposes.”

“Sure,” because he was very unclear about most of what came out of Shintarou’s mouth, but there was one thing that came out of it. “So basically, you’re super super _super_ stitious?”

Shintarou’s ears turned red as he looked away. “It is simply doing everything possible to maximize my luck and capabilities.”

“So,” Kazunari started, struggling to keep himself from laughing. He pointed to the ceramic frog on Shintarou’s nightstand. “That frog. You carried around yesterday. That was a lucky object.”

“ _Item_ ,” he stressed. “Yes. It was.”

This time he couldn’t hold back his chuckles. “How bad do those things get? Have you ever had to carry around a piano or something? A car?”

He was just messing around, so he was ecstatic when Shintarou’s face reddened alongside his ears. He didn’t respond, but that was all the answer he needed. The image of him dragging around a piano or car with that straight face was enough for him to burst out laughing all over again. “How’d you even get that out here?”

“The morning announcements. “

“Wow, Zone added that to yours specifically?” 

Shintarou frowned. “Is it not a part of the morning announcements in your room?”

“No? Why would it be?” 

“So I am granted a special set of announcements on my television... that is disturbing.”

“Disturbing? Isn’t that a good thing? What would you do if you couldn’t get your horoscopes?”

“Of course it is good that I am able to stay in touch with Oha-Asa. But it also means that the people who put us here know about my specific habits.”

Kazunari very kindly decided not to point out while it was strange, it was not a very difficult habit to figure out. Most people didn’t walk around with odd objects in their hands. It would probably take a few moments of research. “Right,” he said instead. “They probably did a bunch of creepy research on us.” _With all of the research and effort that went into this island... something tells me they’re not gonna us off without a fight._

As he’s leaving, he throws over his shoulder, “Hey, you play basketball?”

Shintarou furrowed his brows. “In middle school... why?”

“Nice. I call dibs for you being on my team tomorrow!”

“What?”

“Good night, Shin-chan!”

“Don’t call-“

The door closed, and Kazunari takes the elevator to his room and gets ready for bed, thinking about all the possible nicknames he can give to the other students.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feel free to request any ppl to spend free time events with—
> 
> dw y’all, the motive is comin up real soon ;))


	5. STUDENT REPORT CARDS (1)

** TAKAO KAZUNARI  **

Talent: Ultimate Gymnast

Height: 176 cmWeight: 65 kg

Blood Type: O

DOB: November 21stSign: Scorpio

Likes: Trading cards, kimchi

Dislikes: Quiet

** KUROKO TETSUYA **

Talent:  Ultimate Magician

Height:  168 cm  Weight:  57 kg

Blood Type: A

DOB: January 31st  Sign:  Aquarius

Likes: Skiing, tricks, dogs

Dislikes: Cola

** MIDORIMA SHINTAROU **

Talent: Ultimate Doctor

Height: 195 cmWeight: 79 kg

Blood Type: B

DOB: July 7thSign: Cancer

Likes: Red bean, astrology, classical music

Dislikes: Natto, cats

** AOMINE DAIKI **

Talent: Ultimate Hunter

Height: 192 cm  Weight:  87 kg

Blood Type: B

DOB:  August 31st Sign: Virgo

Likes: Large breasts, banana milk

Dislikes: Bees, goya 

** AKASHI SEIJUUROU **

Talent: Ultimate Shogi Player

Height:173 cmWeight: 64 kg

Blood Type: AB

DOB: December 20th Sign: Sagittarius

Likes: Horse riding, victory

Dislikes: Disobedient dogs, seaweed

** MOMOI SATSUKI **

Talent: Ultimate Manager

Height:161 cmWeight: 53 kg

Blood Type: A

DOB:May 4th Sign: Taurus

Likes: Shopping, Kuroko, cherries

Dislikes: Reptiles

** KISE RYOUTA **

Talent: Ultimate Male Glamour Model

Height: 189 cm Weight: 77 kg

Blood Type: A

DOB:June 18thSign: Gemini

Likes: Karaoke, mineral water

Dislikes: Earthworms, unagi

** KAGAMI TAIGA **

Talent: Ultimate Firefighter

Height:190 cmWeight:82 kg

Blood Type: A

DOB: August 2nd Sign: Leo

Likes: Eating, surfing

Dislikes: Dogs, cold

** MURASAKIBARA ATSUSHI **

Talent: Ultimate Pastry Chef

Height: 208 cm Weight: 99 kg

Blood Type: O

DOB: October 9th Sign: Libra

Likes: Sweets, eating

Dislikes: Small things, crows, vegetables

** HIMURO TATSUYA **

Talent: Ultimate Billiards Player

Height: 183 cm Weight: 70 kg

Blood Type: A

DOB: October 30th Sign: Scorpio

Likes: Pickles, juggling

Dislikes: Lack of effort

** KIYOSHI TEPPEI **

Talent: Ultimate Hanafuda Player

Height: 193 cm Weight: 81 kg

Blood Type: O

DOB: June 10th Sign: Gemini

Likes: Harmonica, family

Dislikes: Black coffee, rats

** AIDA RIKO **

Talent: Ultimate Personal Trainer

Height: 156 cmWeight: ???

Blood Type: A

DOB:February 5thSign: Aquarius 

Likes: Celery, knitting, games

Dislikes: Too much girliness

** SAKURAI RYOU **

Talent: Ultimate Mangaka

Height: 175 cm Weight: 59 kg

Blood Type: A

DOB:September 9thSign: Virgo

Likes: Art, loquat 

Dislikes: Fights

** IMAYOSHI SHOUICHI **

Talent: Ultimate Psychoanalyst

Height: 180 cm Weight: 71 kg

Blood Type: AB

DOB: June 3rd Sign: Gemini

Likes: Horse racing, fishing

Dislikes: Spontaneity 

** KASAMATSU YUKIO **

Talent: Ultimate Kickboxer

Height: 178 cm Weight: 66 kg

Blood Type:

DOB: July 29thSign: Leo

Likes: Music

Dislikes: Arrogance

** HANAMIYA MAKOTO **

Talent: ???

Height: 179 cm Weight: 67 kg

Blood Type: AB

DOB: January 12thSign: Capricorn

Likes: Chocolate, reading

Dislikes: Hero-types

_** REMAINING STUDENTS: 16 ** _


	6. chapter one - kalopsia - deadly life 1.3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ding dong, the motive’s here. Also, Hanamiya needs to chill.

**“Good morning students, rise and shine! It is now 9AM. Get ready for a beautiful day of sun and a very _special_ announcement later on.”**

Kazunari found himself in the cafe again, this time seated next to Kuroko and Kise, making idle chatter as everyone feasted on Murasakibara’s fantastic cooking.

“Really?” Kazunari leaned forward, interested. “You don’t really strike me as a dog person.” For some reason, he could see Kagami flinch with the word dog.

“I didn’t think I was” Kuroko said honestly. “But Nigou caught my heart instantly.”

“Aw, Kurokocchi, you saying that is really cute, but doesn’t match your face at all!” Kise lamented. 

Before he could answer, Aomine walked up behind him and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Oi, Tetsu, we’re teaming up for the game, right?”

“Game?” Kuroko questioned. “We’re having a game today?” 

“Evidently,” Momoi said from a ways across the table, shaking her head. 

“I haven’t played basketball in a while!” Kagami enthused. “This’ll be fun! Right after breakfast?”

“Not directly after,” Riko interrupted hastily. “But I think that would be fun. I don’t really play, though.”

“Me neither,” Momoi laughed. “Oh! But we can be the managers for each team.” 

“As if I’m gonna fall for that. You’re the Ultimate Manager. I’m going to be a coach.”

“Fiesty. May the best woman win.”

“You guys ain’t even gonna be playing,” Aomine groaned, moving to flop down in a seat. “And you didn’t answer my question, Tetsu.”

“I don’t know how the teams will be decided, Aomine-kun,” Kuroko replied, circling around the question. _Interesting_.

“Testu!” Kazunari grinned. “How cute, Testu-chan. Testu-chan and Nigou.”

If the other was bothered by the new name, he didn’t show it, merely blinking slowly as drank the milkshake he had made.

Kise was another story. “Kurokocchi! I wanna call you by your first name too!”

“Please don’t.”

“That’s isn’t fair!! How could you let Aominecchi of all people and not me!” 

”The hell do you mean of all people?!”

Kazunari struggled to keep his laughter in check. He could almost see the emoticons radiating off Kise. Tetsuya’s mouth twitched on a smile. 

“I suppose everyone is okay with that, then?” Akashi started, seating at the head of the table. “A game of basketball, and Kasamatsu’s lessons?” Noises of assent rang out.

“Kasamatsu-senpai,” the man in question stressed. “But yeah, I’m probably almost always going to be in the gym. If you want to learn self defense techniques or blow off steam or something.” 

“Yeah yeah yeah,” Aomine drawled out. “But what’s really important is basketball.”

“Oi, watch that disrespect-“

“It would be nice if we could not bicker all the time,” Kiyoshi smiled, slightly strained.

Hanamiya snickered. “Well, if Aomine or Kasamatsu die we’ll know the other one did it.”

“Hanamiya!” Riko said sharply.

“Oh, you’re right. Little Momoi might get rid of Aomine too.”

“As if Satsuki would be able to kill me.”

“ _That’s_ what you took out of that? And why do you get to call me Satsuki in public, but I can’t call you Dai-chan?!”

“So,” Kazunari interrupted. “Basketball.”

“Right. What teams do we have?”

The game started off decently. Everyone had been able to find comfortable exercise gear to wear from the lockerooms. They had been divided by Momoi and Riko into two teams of 7, regardless of position. Kazunari was with Shintarou, Tetsuya, Akashi, Kiyoshi, Kagami and Kasamatsu, with Riko as their coach/manager. Everyone else was of course on Aomine’s team.

Kazunari found that he had pretty good chemistry on the court with Shintarou in particular. Weirdly enough, he couldn’t shake the feeling that they had played together before. He also had the pleasure of being able to laugh when so many players seemed to lose track of Tetsuya—even his own teammates. Kagami and Himuro also had their own little rivalry on opposite teams. Or more accurately, Kagami was somehow going head to head with everybody on the other team and even his own, but particularly with Himuro. 

He also learned that everyone playing had to have some special ability like him, because there was no way Aomine should’ve made that shot with one hand _again_.

“What the hell is that?!” Kagami yelled. “That doesn’t even make sense! You were damn near horizontal!”

“As if it makes anymore sense that Midorima is making shots from the opposite corner, way past the half court,” Kasamatsu scoffed. “Doesn’t matter, cause he still ain’t winning.”

“Keep talking old man.”

Murasakibara was also very adamant in his refusal to play. He sat on the bench for most of it, slouched in clear disapproval. Himuro seemed weirdly very upset at him, though if Kazunari had a giant on his team he’d probably want him on the court defending too.

Regardless, everything had been going decently. The score was currently tied, and Sakurai had possession. “S-sorry,” he whispered softly as he dribbled. The rest almost appeared to happen in slow motion, at least for Kazunari. 

Sakurai shot the ball from around Kiyoshi, the height difference causing the shot to hit the rim. Kiyoshi and Hanamiya, both jumping for the rebound only the latter seemed to have an odd smile on his face—Hanamiya lands on Kiyoshi’s knee, it shouldn’t be twisting like that, and there is complete silence as Kiyoshi falls, clutching his leg and trying unsuccessfully to hold back his pained groans and yelps.

The silence only lasts a few moments, but the shock is nearly as loud as Kiyoshi’s hurt and Hanamiya’s poor attempt at hiding a small smile. “Whoops. Didn’t see you there.”

And like his words snapped the veil of quiet, Riko rushes forward swearing up a storm, Shintarou a little ways behind her as he moves to assess the injury. “You bastard,” she hissed, “I knew! I knew we shouldn’t have fucking trusted you, you sadistic two faced _piece of utter shit._ ” 

“Riko,” Kiyoshi groaned, face scrunched. “It was an accid-“

“Shut the hell up, Teppei, this wasn’t an accident and you know it.”

“Why are you so aggressive?” Hanamiya frowned, looking down at his shoes. “I didn’t mean to land on him. That tends to happen in basketball, you know.”

“Then why,” Tetsuya bit out, the most emotion the guy had shown this far. “Why were you smiling.”

“Because I got the rebound. How was I supposed to know he was really injured?”

“There’s no way you did it to the exact same leg in the exact same way as last time by accident,” Riko ranted angrily. “You did this on purpose. Teppei was trying to give you another damn chance and you spat in it you asshole!”

“This has happened before?” Kise rose his eyebrows.

“Regardless of whatever past incidents you are referring to,” Shintarou interrupted quickly, still kneeling by Kiyoshi’s prone form. “It would be too much to bring him through the infirmary window. We should move him to his room, and I can tend to his leg there.” He looked around, eyes landing on the purple haired giant on the bench who almost looked interested in what was happening. “Murasakibara, you can carry Kiyoshi, can’t you?” Though it sounded stern like an order.

“All by myself?” He whined, though made his way over anyways. “So much work..”

“I’ll help,” Kagami volunteered quickly before Riko could snap at Murasakibara. 

Shintarou looked around again before his eyes landed on Kazunari. “Takao, come assist me in carrying supplies.” Kazunari was too stunned by the whole situation to do more than just nod.

Now he definitely had more to say when he found out the hard way why Shintarou chose him to help.

“Shin-chan,” he groaned, staring at the rows upon rows of shelves. “I don’t know where this stuff is.”

“I just told you they are inside of the _cabinets_ , not the open shelves.”

“Man, same thing. You’re the doctor, why aren’t you down here to find it?”

“I cannot get my lucky item filthy in the sand.” Kazunari looked over, seeing the other holding a trench coat over his arm. Suspiciously, it looked just like-

“Is that Kise’s?”

“...unfortunately.”

“Oh, but it was okay to crawl in the sand when it was my headband,” he replied petulantly, but went back to searching anyways.

“Don’t be dramatic. It would be much harder to attempt to force my way through this poor excuse of a window with a coat than a headband.”

“You can just say you wanted to spend time with me Shin-chan.”

“I do not-“

“Is this the right stuff?” He held up a few cloth wraps and a long piece of wood.

“Get a longer piece.”

“You can ask nicely,” but still diligently finds a longer piece of wood, or splint of whatever the hell it was called. He stops by the glass containers, trying not to pay any mind to the poisons, and grabs the numbing and pain relieving medications. He handed them off to Shintarou through the window, who in turn wraps all items in the borrowed trench coat. The other nodded his head in swift thanks, and with a small smirk on his face that made Kazunari’s mouth drop open, turned to leave without another word. 

“Hey!” Kazunari called, though he knew it was fruitless. “How mean...” Now he would have to get back out by himself, which was a horror show on it own, with the amount of sand he got up his nose and under his nail. He was going to get Shintarou back the next time he saw him, he swears.

Originally, he was just going to go up to Kiyoshi’s room to check on him and grab something quick for lunch, when he spotted a line figure on the beach. Interest piqued, he approaches and finds Kise, sitting peacefully alone in the sand and looking towards the sky. Kazunari took the opportunity to plop down next to him. “What’s the forecast looking like?”

Kise startled slightly, then chuckled. “Hot, with an extra side of sun and humidity.”

“Too bad,” he sighed, feeling the heat hitting him more than ever. He wondered why the guy wasn’t sitting at one of the picnic benches under the shade. That outfit had to be expensive, yet he was so uncaring about it dirtying his clothes. Then again, how much did that matter now?

“Why hang around in the heat? Trying get the sun to take your mind off of the basketball fiasco?”

“Don’t remind me. You know Aominecchi didn’t even wait until Kiyoshi was gone before he started claiming our team won?”

“We were tied though!”

“Exactly, and that started a whole new argument.”

“Disappointed yet not surprised.” As he leaned forward to bury his feet in the sand, Kazunari noticed a tiny doodle in the sand by Kise’s feet. “Is that a plane?”

Kise jumped slightly, but nodded sheepishly. “Yeah, got a little too bored, haha..”

“So you drew a plane? It would be nice if one flew over us.” He leaned forward even more, and noticed the book in front of the blonde man. “Piloting for Dummies? Damn, you’re really gonna get us outta here.”

”Ah!” He shoved the book under his leg quickly. “I just found that in my room. It’s not mine or anything.”

”Deny it a little harder, I don’t think you’ve convinced me.” 

Kise laughed, rubbing a hand against his cheek. The guy looked really, _really_ good in the sun. Unfairly. “Jeez. That’s embarrassing.” He sighed, resigned. “I think Zone put it in my room on purpose. I always wanted to be a pilot growing up, but I can’t. Rubbing salt in the wound, y’know?”

Kazunari frowned, moving to lay flat on his stomach. “Why can’t you? Just because you didn’t end up as the Ultimate Pilot doesn’t mean you can’t become a pilot anyways.”

”My mom never really took me seriously,” the other responded bitterly even with a smile on his lips, eyes seeing something not quite there. “No one really did. No way dumb blonde Ryouta was gonna become a pilot, right, no way he would be apart of any career he couldn’t perfectly copy.” 

“Perfectly copy?” Kazunari could guess where this was going. “That your ability or something?”

”Yeah. Perfect copy. If I see it, I can just... copy it perfectly. That’s part of what attracted me to being a pilot. It’s not something I can copy. I mean, I can copy and memorize landing strategies, takeoff, but anything can happen in the air. It’s unpredictable. Turbulence, storms, gas running out, stowaways hiding in landing gear—anything can happen in the air! It’s-“ he stopped himself suddenly, panting slightly from his rant. “Man, I probably sound kinda crazy right now, huh?”

Kazunari thought he definitely sounded like a bit of an adrenaline junkie, but figured he shouldn’t put the guy down when it was clearly such a sore spot. “You sound really passionate about it. You clearly are, if you’re reading about it even when we’re trapped in the middle of nowhere. Just go for it, to hell if people think you’re too much of a dumb blonde or something.”

”I wish. My mom would never give me the okay. Piloting school is hard, and I’m already making money, and all that jazz. And my grades suck. I’ve got a pretty stable modeling career set up... even when I outgrow it, I’ll still be set. Doesn’t really matter.”

”If it didn’t really matter,” he whispered, feeling like he was in uncharted territory trying to comfort someone he was pretty much a stranger to. “You wouldn’t have even touched that book.” Kise looked down at the book, consumed by his thoughts. Kazunari stood up, thought to give him one last bit before he left. “Haven’t known you for too long, but you’re definitely not a dumb blonde, not by a long shot, Ryouta-chan. You’d kick stowaway ass as a pilot.” 

Ryouta stared up a him, blank at first. Kazunari started to wonder if he had actually pushed this guy’s boundaries too much, before the guy sent him a small but infinitely bright smile. “Thanks, Takaocchi.”

Kazunari was about to say goodbye and leave the blonde with his book, when his own ability caught something. “Hey, do you see those?” Ryouta looked over as well, to the wide blue expanse of the sea, where floating patiently in the water were two glass bottles caught in the tide.

”What the hell?” The other stood up too. After a shared glance, both moved hesitantly to the bottles bobbing gently in the waves. Kazunari went up to his ankles in water to retrieve both of them, as Ryouta ‘couldn’t afford to ruin such high brand shoes, be reasonable, Takaocchi.’ 

As he picked them up, he could see a small rolled paper hidden away within, trapped and kept dry by the cork pushed into the bottle mouth. Frowning, he walked back over to Ryouta. “Message in a bottle?”

”That’s what they look like,” Kazunari sighed, certain that it was something from Zone. “How cliche.”

”You wanna peek inside?”

“What kind of question is that?” He grinned as he handed Ryouta a bottle. “Of course I wanna be nosy.”

He had to use his teeth to pull the cork out, uncaring of germs. He tilted it so the paper could fall out to his hand, and unwrapped it, hoping it was something that could be used against their captor. 

It read, _has been on a multitude of illegal substances while on the clock_.

He blinked, very confused, and looked over at Ryouta to see if he felt the same, only for the guy to look like someone had just told him his family had been massacred. Wordlessly, he turned his paper around so Kazunari could see it. 

_is lying about his ultimate title._

They stare at each other for a moment, in a pool of confusion until Zone’s voice rings out irritatingly from the speakers. 

“ **Bravo! You guys finally found them. Everyone, please make your way to the hotel lobby, immediately. Tardiness will come with consequence. Boys—you know who you are—bring all that you found with you.”**

Both of them shuddered, remembering what exactly had happened when they had merely spoken about going against Zone. Not wanting to risk its wrath, the two quickly made their way to the gym in tense silence, thinking they had started something very, very wrong.

”What the hell is this?” Kagami questioned, annoyed. They were littered about the lobby, in waiting chairs and couches. Aomine had the gall to sit on the glass table sitting in the middle. “How the hell is it gonna call us to a meetin’ and then be late?!”

“Sorry, sorry!” Zone’s voice rang out. “My sincerest apologies, children.”

“Quit it with the false pretenses,” Shintarou scowled. “Just tell us what you want.”

“Damn, kids have lost all respect these days.”

“No shit we don’t respect someone who wants us to participate in a killing game,” Kasamatsu barked. “Get ok with it.”

“Oh yeah, that’s why I’m here. I’m hear you announce you guys’ **motive**.” That word made him sick to his stomach. He exchanged a look with Ryouta, both of them regretting picking up those messages. 

“Motive, you say?” Imayoshi tilted his head, interested. 

“Yep yep! Your motive is the **_worst secret lottery_**! Since you guys have decided to be adamant against killing, even though you practically spend all of your times arguing, I’m issuing a motive to speed things along.”

A chilling silence rang through the room. Kazunari felt his heart sink. They had all been doing decently. Kagami was in charge of making sure the bonfire on the roof stayed roaring but safe. They had been planning on breaking off tree branches to set up an SOS on the sand. Despite a set amount of bickering here and there, and the obvious issues between Kiyoshi and Hanamiya, they hadn’t actually been worried about a murder happening. 

With a motive involving people’s worst secrets, however...

Kazunari felt his stomach tighten at the idea of what his worst secret could possibly be. He had an idea, but no one should’ve been able to find out... right?

”What is the worst secret lottery?” Akashi takes one for the team and asks.

”It’s simple! Ryouta, Kazunari, would you mind coming forward with the items you found in the ocean?” Though it certainly didn’t sound like a question. They did so reluctantly. “Every day until a murder happens, a message in a bottle will come in the water after every meal. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. The next morning, I will announce the three people the secret belong to. So, I suggest you ugly lot get to murdering or have your dirty little secrets broadcast to the world.” 

”Thats not a reason to murder,” Akashi reassured the room after a few moments of silence.

Kiyoshi agreed from his spot on the couch, wrapped leg propped up. His crutches were propped up as well. “If we don’t kill, everyone’s worst secret will be revealed equally, right? We’ll all be in the same boat.”

”H-He said broadcast though,” Sakurai whimpered, looking close to a breakdown. “Does that m-mean he can tell people o-out-outside of the island?”

”We don’t know that for sure,” Akashi said coolly.

”We can still beat that!” Kasamatsu states firmly. “If we confess our secrets ourselves, Zone will have nothing to hang over our heads, right?” Everyone stared at him, uncomprehending at first. “Cmon, guys. If we admit our worst secret to each other, we’ll have nothing to worry about.”

”Easy for you to say,” Himuro sniped, one visible eye narrowed dangerously. “Your secret’s probably something stupid. Some of us have problems that we would prefer stay buried.”

”Not to mention we have no idea what secrets Zone chose,” Shintarou sighed. “Who’s to know if they are all proportionate? One person’s secret may be that they pickpocket, while another could be a wanted criminal.” 

“Thats even more reason to share, isn’t it?” Imayoshi hummed. “If someone is a wanted criminal, it’d be wise to keep an eye on them, yes?”

”We are getting off track,” Tetsuya interfered. “We need to reach a solution regarding the motive.”

”Hey, don’t you two have secrets in your hands?” Riko called out. “Read them to us.”

Deciding to heed to her call and the lack of objections, they did, revealing the lie about a talent and being under the influence on the job. He had used his ability to see everyone at once, but no one seemed to have that much of a reaction. Either the people with these secrets didn’t care, or they were excellent liars. 

”Okay,” Riko looked around with what wasn’t quite a reassuring smile. “Whose were those?”

No one spoke up.

”Seriously?” Riko shouted. “How are we going to work together if we aren’t trusting each other, huh? These secrets ain’t even that bad!”

”Maybe the one lying... is the wanted criminal,” Murasakibara drawled, looking apathetic despite the introduction of a motive. Perhaps his secrets weren’t that bad.

”Well, we can’t help but assume the worst if no one comes out and defends themself,” Kiyoshi said gently. “If you talk to us now, we can understand your reasoning and-“

”And work together to stop the motive?” Hanamiya snickered, and the atmosphere dropped immediately. “Yeah right. What’s stopping someone from lying about their secret, or their reason for doing it? What’s to stop me from lying about why I lied about my talent, or under the influence, or any other secret?”

”Just because you’re the worst doesn’t mean you should assume everyone else is,” Riko hissed, animosity clear in her tone.

”Speaking of,” Kazunari spoke up, fiddling with the glass bottle in his hand as he stared at Hanamiya. “What is your talent, anyway? Have you ever said?”

“I’m the Ultimate Serial Killer. And the Ultimate Assasin, Divebomber, Murderer, whatever I want you to think! See how easy it is to lie? And you think telling each other our secrets like some stupid game is going to stop people?”

”So you want to abstain from talking about the secrets completely?” Momoi grimaced. 

“That wouldn’t work either,” Kazunari huffed. “Someone could get too curious and look at the secrets by themselves before Zone announces the names.” Because he knows he’d be too curious to find out what Zone has chosen for his secret. It couldn’t be about how he got his talent—only three people knew about that, _and one of them is dead_ , he thought with a shudder of guilt.

”So then we have no solutions?” Ryouta muttered, frowning heavily.

”Guess not,” Aomine yawned. “Next one’s coming after dinner, then?”

”Don’t speak about it so causally!” Momoi scolded.

”There’s still one thing bothering me,” Tetsuya’s lips twitched downwards. “Why did Zone call it a lottery? Why not just worst secrets?”

”Who cares, Tetsu? We obviously ain’t getting anything agreed right now, so I’m out.” And despite the few protests, Aomine walked out the front door.

”See?” Hanamiya purred. “He’s got the right idea. There’s no real way to go about this motive, you know? Lying is always an option, or just straight up not participating, you know?” And with a final wolf like smile towards Kiyoshi and Riko, the latter baring her teeth fiercely, he left as well, along with many others. 

”Even our self-appointed leader left, huh?” Imayoshi chuckled, clearly referring to Akashi, only after her walked out of course. _Not gonna say it to his face, huh_. “How disappointing, and yet so much expected.”

”W-what are we supposed to do?” Sakurai clutched his sketch pad so tightly his hands turned white. “We broke apart instantly... were our bonds r-really that fragile?”

”Such is human nature.”

”It’s only just happened,” Kiyoshi said, standing up with the help of his crutches and Riko. “Of course everyone will be high strung and tense. I’m sure if we talk it over later, we can reach a compromise. I believe in us.”

”E-even Hanamiya? After what he d-did to your l-l-leg? I’m so-sorry if that’s insensitive!”

”You're fine,” he groaned, making his way towards the elevator. Kazunari pressed the button for him, planning on going up to his room as well to freak out. “I do. I know he has his issues, believe me. But I want to keep trying to get through to him. We used to be friends before. We can do it again now.”

”I’m not sure friends is the right word,” Riko frowned.

”How interesting,” Imayoshi smiled, going towards the elevator as well as Sakurai. “Did your previous friendship also end with him harming your knee?”

“It was a lot more than that,” Kiyoshi admitted. “But that was the climax, I suppose.”

”It wasn’t a friendship,” Riko denied angrily. “It was parasitic at _best_.” 

“Riko-“

”No, Teppei. You’re not arguing with me on this. I’ve watched you get hurt twice now trying to be kind to Makoto.” Kazunari raised his brows at the first name usage, but wisely kept his mouth shut. “I’m not going to sit by and let you do it a third time like the idiot you are. He doesn’t deserve it.”

A tense silence came through the elevator, similar to the one that came about when the motive was announced. The two stared at each other for a while, plenty of unspoken words emphasized just for them, only broken when Kiyoshi’s uncrowned kings floor came. A sullen goodbye, and then the other three departed onto the shadow floor. 

Imayoshi left without so much as a second glance, but Sakurai hovered near Kazunari for a moment.

”You okay?” He asked, because the dude looked like he would keel over soon. 

“Do you think...” he looked down, biting his lip hard. “Someone will... k-kill, to protect their secret?”

”... I want to have faith in everyone,” Kazunari smiled, hoping it didn’t come across as fake as he felt. “If we spend our time worrying and doubting each other, we’re doing exactly what Zone wants, right?” He put a hand on his shoulder, nudging him gently until he looked up. “Have some faith, Ryou-chan. You’re gonna be safe. We’re gonna be safe.”

Ryou’s eyes widened with the use of his first name, but he gave a smile, more genuine than he had ever seen on the kid, even when he was gushing over manga tropes. He looked so happy, that Kazunari couldn’t help but grin genuinely in return, both of them sharing a moment of friendship and peace. 

Even as he smiled and reassured, Kazunari couldn’t help the feeling in his stomach. The feeling that he really, really, didn’t want _that_ secret to come out. 


	7. chapter one - kalopsia - deadly life 1.4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The motive continues to unfurl to its precipice, and then-  
> The first body is discovered, and their kalopsia comes to an end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter is somehow both really long yet really quick... mostly bc i felt like i was wasting time sooooooo i combined the two days together.  
> on a better note, the event i’m sure you’ve all been waiting for is here.

Kazunari breathed in slowly, trying to gather his thoughts together and to not spiral. 

He’s not going to kill anyone. He is not—even though he would be  mortified if his secret got out, and would quite possibly lose his ultimate title... he would never take someone’s life. 

_Someone else might murder, so you won’t have to worry about it_ ,  the thought intruded viciously. 

Kazunari shot up, immediately marching to the bathroom to splash water on his face. He was letting Zone get to him—he was way too paranoid. 

Kazunari thrives on interaction, and he knows that being by himself while he was so worked up about the motive was bound to a bad idea. He figured the others were having a hard time dealing too—if the way everyone filed out so easily without reaching a compromise was any indication. It would probably do everyone some good, not being alone.

He looked at his e-handbook, wondering who he might be able to hang out with. There were a handful of people in Kiyoshi’s room for some reason. He takes time to dry his face, and makes his way over. 

Kiyoshi’s door is wide open, and he can hear quiet chatter escaping. This uncrowned king’s floor had a hideous pattern—the walls and carpet were contrasting shades of mustard yellow. There were also extra rooms, with nameplates for people who weren’t on the island.  _Who was Hayama Kotarou? Mibuchi Reo? If this island was made specifically for them, why were there rooms for people who weren’t there?_ He could see Hanamiya’s room right next to Kiyoshi’s, and he carefully ignored it.

He peeked his head in to see what was going on. 

“Ah, Takao!” Kiyoshi smiled. “You’re here just in time. Would you like to play hanafuda?”

“And get thrashed by you, the Ultimate Hanafuda player?” He snorted. “Of course I would!”

Kiyoshi was sitting on his bed, injured leg wrapped up and elevated with a pillow and an ice pack. Riko was sitting next to him, short hair held back with clips. Ryou and Himuro sat on chairs and the floor, greeting him kindly. He plopped down in the empty chair next to Ryou, who gave him a nervous smile, which was reciprocated eagerly. 

“Specifically, we’re playing koi koi. In this game, you’ll have eight cards,” Kiyoshi explained. “On your turn, you discard a card so that it matches with one of the cards in the center. If there’s no match, it just stays discarded. Everyone okay so far?” Kazunari didn’t understand a single rule, honestly, and by the looks of it Ryou was pretty confused too, but neither of them said anything. “You win if you get a Yaku.” Kiyoshi, with Riko’s help, spread the cards in front of them to illustrate the Yaku—a kasu, aotan, etc. He also showed them the different card suits. Kazunari was definitely lost, but he thought he understood for the most part. Match your card with the center card. If they match properly you can win. If you wanted to keep going after getting a Yaku, you’d say koi-koi to keep going.

”I learned it from a nice old man in the hospital before,” Kiyoshi informed them wistfully, not needing to elaborate on why he was in the hospital. Everyone knew now it was the same injury in the same way.

“Sounds interesting,” Himuro grinned slyly, one visible eye flashing. They began playing. 

Even though Kiyoshi beat them every time,which everyone expected, and the room was sweltering with the amount of people with one open window, he still had a lot of fun. The sun was setting, improving the temperature, and it felt good to take his mind off of the motive for a while. At least he didn’t come in last every time—that position was solely Ryou’s.

“I-I’m doing terribly,” he quivered. “I’m sorry I’m making it b-b-boring!”

“It’s okay,” Kiyoshi smiled kindly, while Riko told him to _stop being a crybaby_ , which made him cry more. “Riko,” Kiyoshi admonished. 

“What?” She frowned. “You can’t have a conversation with this guy without him crying. If you stay weak like that, you’re bound to be walked over like a doormat. Don’t think I didn’t see you at breakfast. You let Aomine bully you to take your food.”

“Now I m-made you mad,” Ryou gripped his cards so hard they threatened to crease permanently. “I’m so-sorry I’m weak! I ca-can leave, so p-please don’t be a-angry with me.” 

“Hey, hey,” Kazunari took the cards out of his hand. “Calm down, Ryou-chan, no one’s mad at you.” Ryou was a very worrisome guy to be around, but the kid clearly had no ill intentions—he just needed more self-confidence. Luckily, Kazunari had plenty to spare, as he feels a bit of a protectiveness surge over him.

“You may have a point, lil lady,” Himuro interrupted, “but ya certainly aren’t gettin’ your point across by plain insulting him.” 

“Yes,” Kiyoshi gave her a long look. “You can’t get your viewpoint heard if you’re always being aggressive–“

“Oh,” Riko huffed. “So you can insult me, but I can’t insult the mushroom.”

“I’m not trying to _insult_ you, I’m just saying you get too aggressive sometimes, and it makes people focus on that fact that you’re insulting them, rather than what you’re trying to say.” Somehow, Kazunari had a feeling he was talking about more than just this.

“Maybe we oughta leave,” Himuro raised an eyebrow, judgement emanating.

“Yeah, uh,” Kazunari started. “This is the hundredth time you guys have started arguing in front people. I’m all for teasing, but this seems a little much. Unless this is turning into relationship counseling, which I’m down for.”

Riko deflated, calming down slightly. “Oh hush, Takao. It’s been like this for a while.”

Kiyoshi nodded. “Ever since we broke up-“

“Teppei!”

“It’s not a secret,” he grumbled. “You’re the only one who just plainly uses my given name all the time, not to mention us always being near each other.”

“Did you break up because of Hanamiya?” Kazunari asked tactlessly. Every head in the room snapped toward him, and he had enough sense to realize that was probably not something to ask. Riko’s eyes were wide, mouth open with nothing coming out. He backtracks a little. “I mean, a lot of the arguments I’ve been around for you’ve been arguing about Hanamiya, so...” _Come on, it was a little logical, right? Right?_

“Jee-whiz,” Himuro laughed, shaking his head. “Ya remind me of my brother.” He touched his necklace matching with Kagami’s, looking a little wistful. Kazunari makes a note to ask–bug–him about it. Maybe he and Kagami could mend whatever happened to their relationship.

Ryou was cringing, but Kiyoshi thankfully came to his senses and laughed it off too. “My goodness, you kids have really lost your filters, huh? No, we didn’t break up because of Hanamiya... though he was very involved, now that I think about it.”

“Don’t say it like that dummy,” Riko groaned. “That makes it sound like he was behind it. And you,” she pointed at Kazunari, who raised his hands in surrender, “it’s none of your business.”

”My bad.” 

“Don’t be like that. We’re all friends here, yeah? We should all be able to trust each other with secrets.” And that unsubtle attempt at referring back to the motive made the tension in the room grow just that much.

“Right,” Riko grimaced, redoing the pins in her hair to have something to do. “Secrets.”

“D-do you think s-someone will...” Ryou began, biting his nails. 

“No,” Kiyoshi said firmly. 

“Neither of those secrets were even bad enough to think about murdering someone,” Kazunari said, pulling at his headband.

“Even if they were bad,” Riko crossed her arms, “that doesn’t mean it’s okay to take a life for it! I’d like to think most of us here aren’t that unreasonable.”

“But we dunno how bad the secrets can get,” Himuro argued, staring hard at his cards. “Some shit oughta stay buried.” Ryou turned to look at him with wide eyes, prompting him to hastily defend himself. “I’m n-not going to do somethin’ like that of course! I’m just sayin’ I can tell these secrets ain’t all gon’ be equal. People get real impulsive when they panic.”

“That’s why we should be able to trust each other,” Kiyoshi repeated, trying to get Himuro to look him in the eyes and failing. “We don’t need to panic if we’re all friends.” Himuro didn’t look up, simply asking if they were going to keep playing.

They continued playing on that despondent note, Kiyoshi winning every time but his heart clearly not in it, frustrated about their circumstances. Kazunari could understand. There was little they could do if there was no trust.

Dinner wasn’t awful, but certainly not good either. They had never eaten dinner as a whole group in the first place, which might be a reason for the silence. Kazunari ate with Ryouta and Shintarou, whose banter was just barely enough to mask the underlying panic of all the captives. 

Breakfast with everyone did not go well either, though that could be entirely attributed to Zone.

They had all been fine, idly chatting and avoiding talk about the motive while eating Murasakibara’s astounding food, most either disregarding its unhealthiness or just having smaller portions, when Zone’s voice rang out.

“Good morro, beauties! I see no one is dead just yet. Not scared of the motive yet?”

“God, its voice is worse than Kise’s” Aomine groaned, thunking his head down on the table.

“Hey!” Ryouta‘s crocodile tears came out with a wail, obviously theatrics. “My voice is glorious and golden.” 

“Never mind. Kise’s voice is much worse.”

”At least I don’t sound like a drunkard.”

”I ain’t no _goddamn alcoholic_ -“

“Aominecchi, don’t be so mean to me all the time. No wonder Momoicchi will never like you.”

”What?!”

”Haah?! You think I want-“

“Ahem!” Zone interrupts. “Silence. The motive. _Hello_. Thanks. Now, my dearest, please reveal last night’s secret.”

Everyone waited for  dearest to reveal themselves, and Momoi sighed heavily as she raised the message.

_killed a civilian in a hit and run_

“So, all three secrets are out! Someone is lying about their talent, another does drugs on the job, and the final is a murderer in a hit and run! These secrets belong to Imayoshi Shoichi, Akashi Seijuurou, and Kagami Taiga in no particular order.” The atmosphere became stony with the final secret announced. A hit and run was no joke, especially when the person died. Suspicious glances were tossed about, just as distrustful as they were that first day the killing game was announced.

“If you do want to know whose secret belongs to whom,” Zone continued gleefully, either ignoring the atmosphere of reveling in it. “In the prize room, all three slips will be in a jar. Everyone is allowed to enter and pull once at random. When you pull from there, the specific person it belongs to will be revealed, for you to use however you please. That’s all folks! Good day to you!”

Kazunari once more couldn’t see anyone looking too nervous, not even the ones who had been singled out. Ryou did, but he was in a perpetual state of anxiety, so that couldn’t be helped. 

“So there’s a simple solution,” Kiyoshi began, and Hanamiya didn’t even let him finish before scoffing.

”Let me guess, something stupid like let’s all promise not to look, or equally ridiculous. There’s no point in bothering, cause I think I’m gonna head over there right now.” Then just as he said, Hanamiya started walking out.

”Hanamiya!” Kiyoshi shouted, losing his normal composure. Most people near him flinched. “ _Makoto_ ,” he stressed, forcing the man in question to freeze suddenly.

“Why do you always have to do this?” Kiyoshi called desperately. “All we’re trying to do is get along—hell, screw getting along, we’re trying to work together. We all want to escape. Why do you have to instigate? Why can’t you just let-“ He bit his tongue, clearly holding back from ranting as he noticed all the attention on him. 

Hanamiya didn’t say anything in return. His face was so completely blank he could give Tetsuya and Himuro a run for their money. Simply staring back. A long moment passed, before Hanamiya finally turned and walked away from the chance he was given.

”Hey,” Kagami comforted awkwardly. “You don’t have to stress over that dude... he broke your leg.”

”He did not break it,” Shintarou informed haughtily, completely missing the point. “Does that look like the work done for a broken leg?” He gestured at Kiyoshi’s fixed up leg.

“Broken, bruised, fractured, what the fuck ever, man. Not like you know for sure. There’s no x-ray shit here.”

Kazunari wasn’t paying much attention to their talking and bickering. He was more interested in Akashi silently leaving the table, going in the same direction as Hanamiya. On a whim, he decided to slide out of his seat quietly too, trailing after him, seeing Tetsuya and Ryouta do the same.

_Akashi has been pretty quiet in general lately,_ Kazunari thought. _Maybe the motive is effecting him a lot?_

”Probably that,” Tetsuya said suddenly, interrupting his thoughts though not scaring him. That disappointed him, if the minuscule pout was any indication. Kazunari thought he was getting good at reading Tetsuya’s small change in expressions in his normal poker face, and couldn’t tell if he should be proud of it or not. “But Akashi-kun has also set himself as our makeshift leader. We normally do not get along perfectly, but much more so when Hanamiya is involved. He is probably trying to regain control.”

Kazunari was thoroughly wowed. _This guy could seriously read people_. ”...you sure you aren’t the ultimate analyst, Tetsu-chan? If you aren’t careful, you’ll put Imayoshi out of his job.”

”Nonsense. I simply know Akashi-kun.”

”That was brilliant, Kurokocchi!” Ryouta praised, clutching onto his arm tightly. “It would be more brillianter if I could compliment you with your given name~”

”’More brillianter’ is very poor grammar,” Tetsuya responded, not trying to escape him but not encouraging the poor rendition of a hug.

“And you, Takaocchi!” Ryouta suddenly whirled on him just as they reached the entrance of the recreation center. “Why does he get his pet name shortened and not me?! That’s not fair!”

”I can call you Ki-chan,” Kazunari offered. “It’d be a little too hard to distinguish between you and Sakurai if I called you both Ryou-chan.” That sounds like it would be an interesting game, though.

”Damn that name thief,” Ryouta huffed. “I want a cuter nickname than Kurokocchi, so Ki-chan will have to do.” Kazunari noticed than Ryouta didn’t bother trying to call Tetsuya by his first name anyways, as Kazunari tends to do. _A lot more respectful than me, I guess_.

The reached the prize room finally, entering a heated confrontation. Or perhaps _freezing_ would be a better term. Both Akashi and Hanamiya were exceeding calm—Hanamiya smiling with no teeth and all danger, Akashi’s face relaxed yet eyes blazing. 

Hanamiya’s hand was hovering inside the jar Zone mentioned. It was obnoxiously sparkly, the surfaces around it all covered by glitter.

”And now we have an audience!” Hanamiya announced cheerfully. “I knew you guys didn’t want to reject the motive as much as you whined.”

”Hanamiya-kun,” Tetsuya began, “you insist on stirring animosity.”

”But we all trust each other,” he mocked. “Why should you be worried about lil ole me?”

”Gee, I wonder,” Kazunari rolled his eyes.

”You’re nowhere near trustworthy,” Akashi stared. “Continuing to act outside of the group’s wishes will not be in your favor.”

”Why? Is that a threat? You gonna punish me?” And with a flourish, he dragged his hand out of the jar, knowing no one was willing to put their hands on him. 

“Maybe we could?” Ryouta looked at Akashi. “Can’t we lock him in his room or something?”

Akashi shook his head. “I had considered the idea, certainly. But I’m afraid that is too dangerous for anyone to try at the moment.” He indicated Hanamiya’s body.

Now that Kazunari examines Hanamiya thoroughly, he can see—

“A knife?! Dude, are you serious?” 

It was in a pocket of his jumpsuit, threatening to tear through at the slightest improper movement.

“I’m just prepared to defend myself,” Hanamiya grinned. “There are some real hotheads here.” 

“I’m looking at one right now,” Tetsuya mumbled, staring purposefully at him. Hanamiya’s smile stretches wider at the insult.

”Wait,” Kazunari starts. “You were alone in here with him? And he has a knife?!”

Akashi hummed thoughtfully. “It would be fairly obvious if I were killed, considering all three of you witnessed me leave after Hanamiya, yes? Potentially more who simply didn’t bother to follow. All in all, the chances of my murder now is slim.” He spoke of his potential death so flippantly, like he was listing off a weather report.

“Please don’t talk about that so causally, Akashi-kun. What do you plan on doing with that,” Tetsuya indicates the secret. 

“Hm, you mean this secret belonging to Akashi?“ Hanamiya waved the slip around happily, the redhead’s name now etched on the back—how Zone put it there, Kazunari had zero clue. “This one right here? I was only just planning on checking it out. This guy came after me without even knowing it would be him.”

”A 1/3 chance is still a chance,” Akashi narrowed his eyes. He stared at the paper intensely.

”So now,” Hanamiya continued, “I suppose he wants to cut a deal. Correct?”

”We aren’t going to leave you alone!” Ryouta nearly shouts. “You have a weapon, plus you might take other people’s secrets! Akashi, we have to do something about him.”

Akashi was silent for a while, closing his eyes as he considered his options, all the while Hanamiya smiled at their audience. Kazunari couldn’t help but feel unnerved when that gaze fell on him. Finally, he spoke. “Leave us.” Akashi’s voice sounded different than usual, sharper. Tetsuya tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but Akashi stepped forward, nearing Hanamiya. “ _Leave_.”

They couldn’t convince Akashi to leave with them. All they could do was hope nothing would happen between the two.

Tetsuya in particular tried hard, and if he couldn’t do it, no one could. Especially considering it nearly seemed like Akashi became an entirely different person, with the rapid change in demeanor. 

Kazunari was obviously still worried, but Tetsuya was practical now, all traces of earlier emotion gone. “I don’t think we really have to worry. We know they’re here. If one of them did something to harm the other, we would know.” 

None of them were happy to accept this conclusion, but it was the best they could do. They couldn’t forcefully remove Akashi, even though he was presumably weaponless. 

“We can stand guard,” Kazunari blurted suddenly, struck with the idea. “If we stand by the door until one of them comes out, we can hear if anything breaks or someone yells.”

”Ah, that makes sense,” Ryouta pouted. “I just wish those two wouldn’t be so stupid and stubborn. It’s gonna get them killed sooner or later.”

“Kise-kun.” 

“I don’t want either of them to die! I’m just saying, being headstrong isn’t gonna help.”

”I think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone on this island who isn’t stubborn,” Kazunari chuckled. He caught something in the corner of his eye. “Hey, someone’s on the beach.”

Ryouta gasped. “Y-you don’t think he has one of the secrets or something?”

“Here we go again,” Kazunari groaned, jogging forward to the mystery person and trusting the remaining two to stay behind. 

Imayoshi was holding the bottle, reading the message as he moved with a wolfish smirk. He looked up as Kazunari neared, glasses reflecting sunlight harshly. “Ah, have you come to relish in the misdoings of others?”

”Huh? I-“ 

“Don’t let me stop you.” And with that, he thrust Kazunari the message so quickly that he flinched back with a strangled noise. Imayoshi snickered, obviously getting the reaction he wanted. Kazunari felt his ears get red, but he did nothing more than huff and take the paper.

_poisoned clients over time._

Kazunari had no idea what face he was making, grateful it was still angled down towards the paper.

These things were getting worse and worse. “No wonder no one wants to talk about them,” he said thoughtlessly. He didn’t know how these things could potentially be defended in the first place. Poison? There were poisons in the infirmary...

Imayoshi laughed. “That does seem to be the obvious reason, doesn’t it? A bunch of evil, it seems. A hit and run, drugs, poisoning... perhaps we deserve what’s happening to us. A punishment.”

...the killing game was a punishment? No, that couldn’t be. There was no way every single secret had to do with something crime related. Kazunari had no idea whether what he did was a crime or not, but it certainly wasn’t enough to constitute being placed in a killing game as _punishment_. Imayoshi just kept on smiling. Despite his eyes being closed, Kazunari felt he was being thoroughly examined. It made him feel weird.

”I wonder,” Imayoshi continued, “if this is yours? You seem like the type to use such an underhanded method.” Kazunari felt a little pinch of annoyance. How the hell would he have clients to poison as a _gymnast_?

”Why are you always wearing glasses if your eyes are always closed? So you don’t have to look people in the eye when you lie about your talent?”

Imayoshi nearly seemed to blink. The grin never went away though—only went wider. “Perhaps I am, perhaps I am not. What a boring reaction, though. I can imagine several people here would be ready to feud right now, even physically.”

_Ready to feud? What century is he from?_ “Are you going around telling everyone that they’re the type to poison someone? Cause I’m sure if you ask Aomine or Kasamatsu, you’ll get that exact reaction.” _This guy is really something else_. Kazunari couldn’t help but feel irritated talking to him, and he felt guilty thinking that considering he barely _knew_ Imayoshi. 

“I tend to have that effect on people,” Imayoshi answered his thoughts, as if he heard. Kazunari is 70% sure he did not say them out loud, and is slightly disturbed. “I suppose it’s a perk of knowing minds so well. And since you’re so interested,” Imayoshi stepped even closer, and Kazunari struggled not to step back. They were nearly chest to chest. Kazunari was vaguely afraid Imayoshi was gonna headbutt him. But up close, he could see the fine details of the other’s face. Imayoshi‘s eyes were _just barely_ open, slitted open so small he wondered if he was just imagining it. His irises looked off, somehow. Imayoshi tilted his head. “I wear my glasses to see. _Obviously_.”

With that, Imayoshi quickly snatched back the message, popped it and the cork back in the bottle, and went off on his merry way, approaching Akashi nearby.

Kazunari didn’t know whether he wanted to laugh or be extremely annoyed. What his body did, though, was stay dumbstruck until Imayoshi was far gone. “Y-you had to come so close just to say that...?” Kazunari truly had no read on the guy-

_Wait. Akashi_?

Kazunari snapped his gaze towards him again and yes, it was Hanamiya standing there. _Did that mean they had finished striking a deal or whatever_? 

He went back to where Tetsuya and Ryouta were moving closer to him.

“You look weird,” Ryouta gave as a greeting. “Why are you dimpling like that?”

”...huh?”

”You’re frowning,” Tetsuya explained. “And your dimples are coming out that way.”

”And it looks weird,” Ryouta insisted. “Dimples are meant for smiling.”

“Oh.” Kazunari blinked, unaware he had been frowning. Was he really that off balance from their interaction? “Uh, those three seem like a recipe for disaster.”

Tetsuya nodded his head. “I agree. But Akashi-kun insisted he was fine. I don’t know whether to keep believing him or not.”

”Hanamiya has his secret,” Ryouta frowned. “I’d be pretty messed up if someone was lording my secret over my head too. Maybe we should permanently stand guard?” 

“I don’t think that’d work,” Kazunari shook his head. “Standing outside of the door all day, in this heat? Not to mention eating and using the bathroom.”

”We could always take turns...”

”I don’t think that will help either,” Tetsuya added. “Hanamiya is still inside either way. He has yet to leave—when we tried the door, he blocked it somehow. Perhaps with the gashapon.” 

”You don’t think Akashi-“

”No, of course not. But I don’t think we are the right people to speak to an armed Hanamiya.”

”But I am, I guess.”

They turned to see Riko approaching, clearly angry in the way her feet are stomping. Kazunari waved at her, getting a stilted nod back. “What the hell is he doing this time, huh?”

”Hogging the prize room,” Ryouta answered.

”What a freak,” Riko muttered under her breath. She looked very agitated, and he didn’t want to set her off by asking. Most likely another argument. He wondered why Kiyoshi and Riko hung out so much if they couldn’t get along. “Alright, let me at him.”

”No point. He blocked the door, and he has a knife.”

”A knife?! Makoto, you damn... We need to warn everyone. _We_ can’t really approach him.”

”But if people hear he’s carrying a knife around, they’re gonna freak out. Maybe even try to get a knife themselves, and that will spawn more chaos.”

Kazunari was hit with an idea. “What about Kasamatsu? He could probably handle him.”

Riko’s eyes widened. “That might just work! But he’s about to host one of his lessons right now.”

”I’m sure he’ll pardon the interruption,” Tetsuya said. 

They made their way over to the gym quickly. Maybe they could convince Kasamatsu to try taking on Hanamiya, with help of course. He took a good look at everyone there.

“Murasakibara?” Kazunari asked, amazed. “You actually volunteered?”

”Muro-chin promised me lots of candy if I did,” the purple haired giant sighed, clearly holding back endless complaints for the sake of sweets. 

“You need to bond with us outside of cooking,” Himuro teased, looking effortlessly cool next to Momoi, who sighed dreamily, but cut it off early when she noticed Tetsuya. Ryou looked like he would have a breakdown just from hearing it, while Kagami just clapped Tetsuya’s back in greeting. Aomine was a few bleachers above them, looking like he would rather be anywhere else in the world. Momoi probably dragged him away.

”Yo, Kuroko, Kise, Takao... uh, R-Riko,” Kasamatsu blushed as he exited the locker rooms, bandages wrapped around his hand carefully. “You wanna join too?” 

“Actually, we need you to-“

”I don’t wanna hear any excuses!” Kasamatsu dismisses. 

“But we need your help-“

”That’s why you’re here.”

”This is serious-“

”No excuses!”

”People could be in danger,” Riko insisted, and whether Kasamatsu listened because of his need to protect or because he didn’t want to ignore a girl was unclear.

“What happened?”

They quietly explained the situation to avoid mass panic. Kasamatsu told the attendees that he would be right back, and the four of them prepared. Kazunari felt exceedingly nervous. He was not a fighter, not by a long shot. And the idea of Hanamiya potentially stabbing someone...

Luckily, they didn’t have to worry about that. Because he was gone.

”...was this some shitty prank?” Kasamatsu gritted his teeth.

”No!” Ryouta raised his hands. “He was just here.”

The whole building was empty. The games, the bowling alley, the prize room, devoid of life aside from them. 

Kasamatsu looked thoroughly unconvinced, and Kazunari briefly wondered if it really was a prank. Tetsuya didn’t seem the type of person to create a prank like this, though. “You’re saying he’s running around armed, then? And no one stopped him?”

He made a good point. Akashi and Imayoshi were still near the building. Unless they turned a blind eye to him, Hanamiya should’ve been spotted. When asked, both denied seeing him exit. Akashi still looked off. 

“People don’t just disappear,” Kasamatsu was pissed. “You really wanted to avoid the self defense lesson this goddamn much?”

”No, we-“

”Because if you didn’t want to do it, all you had to do was not attend.” It took a moment for Kazunari to realize the guy wasn’t just pissed—he was hurt. His feelings were hurt. “I know exercise and fighting ain’t everyone’s cup of tea, but you don’t have to make up shit like- like-“ He ran out of words, clenching and unclenching his fists, before he let out a long breath and stalked back to the gym.

They were silent a while, until Tetsuya spoke up. “I think we may have reminded him of something unpleasant, from his past.”

”Maybe,” Riko said weakly. She was staring at the slip of paper Imayoshi held. She her talent had clients—maybe it could be hers...

It was too soon to pass judgement. She wasn’t the only one with a talent that could have clients.

Beyond that, Kazunari felt bad. He and Riko hadn’t stayed the whole time, so he had no idea if Tetsuya and Ryouta had really been telling the truth, but was still inclined to believe in his friends. He could see that they felt guilty too.

They decided to attend the lesson to make it up to him. They apologized without bringing up the issue—Riko thought it would make him more upset if they insisted without any proof. Kasamatsu was still obviously uncomfortable, but welcomed them in anyways.

Kazunari was at a loss. He knew that Hanamiya definitely had a knife the last time he saw the guy. That made him dangerous. It would certainly help to get a bit of self defense training. But what about the others on the island who didn’t know? He felt like he wasn’t doing enough to protect everyone, but he was already sitting on the bleachers and knew if he walked out now Kasamatsu would probably stay angry with him for a long, long while.

Kasamatsu also asked if they wanted to volunteer as an example, and he declined hastily. As much as Kazunari enjoyed getting thrashed by Kiyoshi in the card game, he didn’t think he would quite enjoy getting _literally_ thrashed.

“Sure. I guess this is gonna be everyone for today, right? Let’s get started then. Ready, Murasakibara?”

The giant groaned sadly, though he slowly made his way into the ring anyways.

Kasamatsu began to demonstrate different movements and situations with Murasakibara. Eventually, he somehow convinced Murasakibara he would steal all his candy if he didn’t put in more effort. That fired him up immensely, a menacing aura surrounding him. He was ridiculously easy to persuade.

“Wow,” Kagami laughed. “He’s really goin’ at it now.”

”Never mention Murasakibara-kun’s candy.”

“I’ve never seen Mukkun use so much effort.”

”Mukkun?”

”His name’s too long.”

”I hear you,” Murasakibara said lowly. He was currently pinned down on the floor, Kasamatsu holding him down with his legs on his chest, gripping Murasakibara’s arm and looking like he was about to break it. 

“That’s impressive as hell,” Himuro stated. “The dude’s a mini giant compared to you, and you still took him down.” 

“It’s all about using your opponents strength against them,” Kasamatsu said sagely. “Using their momentum, and keeping yourself in control.” 

They got back up, and this time after avoiding Murasakibara’s advances, pinned an arm behind his back and pushed him against the ropes. “Now, it’s obviously better if this was a wall, of course, or the ground, but you have to make do with what you got.”

Kasamatsu then invited them all into the ring, to partner up and practice it themselves. Kazunari was with Kagami.

”What’s up, big guy? Ready to go down hard?” He taunted playfully. Kagami grinned back.

”Oh, you’re on.” 

Needless to say, Kazunari lost every time. There was no chance, against the firefighter. The guy probably benched houses for fun. 

It wasn’t even a match—half the time Kagami just picked him up and put him over his shoulder. 

“Dude,” Kazunari sighed, tossed over Kagami’s shoulder again. “This is totally cheating.” It took his mind off the situation with Hanamiya, though. Blood rushing to your head several times in a row tends to take your mind off a lot of things.

“I got you, didn’t I?”

”This is not what I taught you,” Kasamatsu groaned when he walked over. “What are you doing to him?”

”Fireman’s carry,” Kagami grinned.

Kazunari sighed dramatically again, still upside down. “This is my end.” Kagami set him down again, and Kazunari pretended to faint, putting on a high voice. “Tai-chan, you can’t treat a lady so roughly.”

Taiga pushed him away with a grin, making him stumble. “Good thing you ain’t a lady. I swear, you and Kuroko are so damn dramatic.”

”I did nothing,” Tetsuya called, pinned beneath Riko. 

Kasamatsu went around once more, giving pointers on how to better use your opponents power against them. By the end, Ryouta had pinned Murasakibara, Momoi had tossed Aomine over her shoulder, who looked appalled to be overpowered, and Ryou had been convinced to gently push Himuro without crying.

“So cool!” Ryouta grinned, when Kasamatsu had coached Momoi through pinning down Aomine, swearing like a sailor.

“Yeah!” Momoi gushed. She gave him a thousand watt smile. “You’re amazing, senpai! Thanks.

Kasamatsu reddened, stuttering about just doing all he can to help. His mind didn’t seem to be on what happened early, which was a win in Kazunari’s book. 

”That was real useful,” Himuro trailed off, looking deep in thought. Kagami was staring at him sadly. They hadn’t acknowledged one another this whole time. “I’ll be sure to keep all this in mind.”

Aomine did not agree, as he kept asking for a rematch against Momoi. She kept winning every time after.

He felt they had all grown closer by knocking each other into the mat.

Kazunari still thought warning people about Hanamiya would be a good idea, but then again everyone knew Hanamiya was always up to no good. They would probably be wary around him regardless.

Still, he decided to tell everyone he saw to watch out for Hanamiya. He didn’t tell anyone there was a knife involved—he didn’t want what was said earlier to come true, that people would panic and become desperate to find protection of their own.

As he’s strolling down the beach towards the picnic tables, he’s struck with a sudden thought, and feels like an idiot.

The map.

The map on their e-handbook showed everyone’s location. They could’ve found Hanamiya ages ago.

He slapped his palm on his forehead, pulling it out quickly to check. Hanamiya was just in his room. A cursory check showed that everyone was still on the map, littered across the island.

He saw no one was at the picnic benches, and decided to take a breather there, keeping his map on.

He loved being around people, he really did. But the people on this island were far beyond anyone he met in the real world. The strong personalities were fun to mess with and even better to be around, but some of them were out of their minds.

He knew he should probably be more worried about Hanamiya, as the guy was insistent on ruining most meetings and destroying the peace, and had a knife now, but he still felt more worried about Imayoshi. Kazunari had never met someone able to irritate him so quickly, and he didn’t like it. He made a note to try harder. 

_Actually... I’ve got a lot of notes now, don’t I?_

To talk to Himuro and Taiga about their old brotherhood, and their time in America, and the cadaver in Shintarou’s room, and Tetsuya’s magic tricks, talking to Akashi about what came over him, his own secret-

His secret.

Kazunari pulled at his headband, letting the band snap as he thought about what the hell he was supposed to do. He really didn’t want anyone to read it, let alone Hanamiya or Imayoshi. He also didn’t know why he was so worried about it. It wasn’t like anyone could get him in trouble. It was nowhere near as bad as poisoning or hitting someone in your car. 

He rubbed his face, thinking he really needed to just get ready early. His secret could even come out this afternoon, or tonight. If that happened, he needed to be ready to hear his name announced in the morning and take it from the jar before anyone else could. Sighing, he glanced at his map again to see who was in the cafe. It was surprisingly empty. 

He sat up on the kitchen counter, chewing idly on an apple and wondering what he should do next. Maybe go swimming, or gymnastics. No, he wasn’t in the right state of mind for that, too worked up over the motive. Those two taking other people’s secrets and rubbing them in people’s faces worried him more than he wanted to admit. 

Luckily, a distraction was approaching. He watched Ryou enter the cafe on his handbook, and debated on whether to jump out at him or not. In the end, he decided to spare the kid, as he’d probably keel over on the spot.

It was unnecessary, as Ryou gave a strangled scream when he laid eyes on him.

”That’s not a reaction you wanna hear,” Kazunari shook his head in faux disappointment. “Do I really look like a monster?”

”N-No! You look fine! I w-was, I didn’t kn-kn-know it was occupied, I’m s-so so so so so-sorry!”

”I’m just kidding, man. Lighten up a little. You’re gonna give yourself a heart attack or something.”

”S-sorry.”

”And you don’t have to apologize for everything.”

”Sorry. I mean, sorry for b-being sorry- and a-annoying! I can leave you al-alone!”

Kazunari patted the counter next to him, indicating Ryou to sit. He looked horrified at first, but it didn’t take much to convince him to join. This part might be a little harder.

”Hey Ryou-chan, why do you always carry that sketchbook around? And I don’t mean it negatively,” he added hastily when Ryou was opening his mouth to apologize.

Ryou took a moment, and started smiling shyly. “It’s in case I f-find inspiration... I want to capture it in the m-moment.”

He stopped stuttering as much. “That’s really cool. You must be pretty talented.”

”Thank y-you. I’ve been drawing and writing a-all my life. And to be given an ultimate title for it...”

This was going to be a hit or miss, but he was willing to take the shot. “Do you mind showing me some of your work?” Ryou stayed silent, the grip on his sketch pad becoming tighter. A miss, then. “Or you can just describe them to me, it’s fine, really.” _Please don’t freak out._ Then, a sketch pad was pushed into his hands, and what is it with people shoving things in his face today?

The sketchbook was of their time on the island. Kazunari spotted himself a lot among the beginning, meeting people all over the island, an interestingly detailed close up of Imayoshi’s glasses, and a pretty disturbing image of Hanamiya’s head on a snake and Riko’s on a bear.

”Holy hell,” Kazunari breathed. “Ryou, I need you to tell me every series you’ve ever worked on immediately, because I’m going to buy every copy.”

Ryou squeaked, pulling his fingers bashfully. “It’s n-not that good... is it?”

”Dude,” Kazunari held back a laugh seeing a comparison of Shintarou to a carrot. He was so gonna use that one. “This is amazing. Have confidence in yourself, dude. You wouldn’t have this talent if you weren’t the best damn mangaka of our class.”

Ryou seemed to glow. Now he looked close to crying again, but from the smile on his face he could tell they were tears of joy. “Y-you’re really k-kind...”

Kazunari grinned back, ruffling Ryou’s hair. He groaned quietly but didn’t push him away. Kazunari was reminded slightly of his little sister, and was hit with a sad wave of nostalgia. 

How was his sister doing without him? Did she miss him? Did she have any idea he was in danger?

”Takao-kun? A-are you alright? D-do you need me to l-leave now?”

_Right. I’m in public. Keep it together_. ”I was just thinking about how you might be interested to know... Imayoshi’s eyes are just barely open. Like, barely wider than the side of a coin open. Like an anime character.”

”S-seriously! He really _is_ like an a-anime character! That’s really amazing! Ah, I need to n-note this...” 

For the rest of their time in the kitchen, Ryou ranted happily about the different tropes he could see in some of the islanders, with Imayoshi occurring the most often of course. He laughed particularly hard at Taiga being called a himbo. Poor guy. But Ryou was much more eager to come out of his shell and express himself, so Taiga would just have to unknowingly suffer.

_________

He was going to go to bed. Honestly, he really was. He finished dinner, hung out with Ryou a little bit more, and the nighttime announcement rang. He was ready to settle down and relax in his room—maybe bother Tetsuya in his room, since they were on the same floor, but all that was put to a halt when he had the sudden urge to go to the beach.

He told himself he was just going to stop people like Hanamiya or Imayoshi from getting it—that was it. Checking his map, he could see that a few people were around, but none on the beach just yet.

_I’m not going to do anything with it if it’s mine,_ he chanted internally. _I will not tear it up, I won’t eat it, I will handle it like a mature adult. I’m not an adult yet, but the point still stands._

He grabs the bottle and after a little self debate, opened it right then and there. No point in making himself anxious when it may not even be his.

_known as triple m: mr medical malpractice_

Not his, obviously, but Kazunari instantly knew who it had to belong to, even without an announcement from Zone. There was only one doctor here.  He stares at it for a long while, the waves lapping gentle nudges against his ankles. Eventually, he begins to move.

He can’t decide whether or not this is a bad idea. Of course, he knows objectively confronting someone with their worst secret was not a good idea ever. But he just couldn’t see anything happening to him. Maybe his self-preservation had been knocked out by too many takedowns from Taiga. But his mind was determined and his feet already moving, so there was only one thing to do.

Shintarou opens the door and is greeted by Kazunari shoving the bottle in his face.

Shintarou, expectedly, flinched back, gripping the door handle. Once he noticed what he was holding, he scowled.

”What are you doing.”

Kazunari grimaced slightly, because he had no idea what he was doing honestly, all impulse, but steps into the room and once again presents the bottle.

The other takes it hesitantly, understanding what was going on, opening it to reveal its contents. Kazunari hopped up on the platform holding the cadaver mannequin, patting its leg. Shintarou didn’t need to open it, as Kazunari took the liberty to remove the cork. It stays quiet. Moments passed, and he began wondering if this was actually a bad idea. He was gripping onto the bottle so tightly it was about to shatter.

Before he could warn the other, he spoke out dangerously. “Why did you have this.”

”I was on the beach. It floated out and I took it, in case it was mine.” Not entirely the truth, but not a lie. 

“I suppose you’re here to confront me about this, then. I’ll have you know blackmailing me will not-“

”Wait wait wait, who said anything about blackmailing? I came to hear your side of the story. There’s no way you’d be the ultimate doctor if you were killing all your patients, so there has to be something more to it.”

Before he could school his face, Shintarou looked surprised, green eyes wide in shock. As if he wasn’t expecting to be allowed his side of the story. Not exactly reassuring.

He pushed up his glasses and glanced at the wall behind Kazunari’s head, speaking stiffly. “The... doctors, who took me under their wing had other pupils as well. A lot of them decided it would be funny to refer to me as... that,” he said disdainfully, “because they thought someone with my visage and eccentricity would be bound to indulge in patient negligence.” He clenched his fists. “I have never once engaged in  _malpractice_.” He spat out the word like it had personally insulted him, though it kind of had. “And never will.”

“Well damn,” Kazunari said eloquently, after taking a few moments for it to sink in. 

“...okay?” 

“So you got that name because the people you were stuck with were huge jerks and decided to screw with you? Zone definitely framed the slip that way to make you look like you were some type of evil doctor or something. That’s horrible.” Kazunari was upset on his behalf. He couldn’t imagine going through his day getting called that, just because he was different. Sure, Shintarou was  very standoffish and had weird superstitious habits, but that was no reason to give him a nickname that insinuated he would grow up to kill patients for the hell of it. 

He wondered if Zone worded all of the secrets this way, leaving out all the meaningful parts of the story and just broadcasting the worst bits to garner suspicion. He internally apologizes for doubting his friends.

Shintarou looked at him as if he’d grown another three heads. “Y-You’re believing what I say? Just like that?”

“...yes...? Are you telling me I shouldn’t?”

Shintarou frowned. “I could be lying to you.”

“ _Are_ you?” he started to get put off slightly.

“No.”

“Then what was the point of asking?” Kazunari questioned awkwardly, scratching his neck.  _How did we get from there to here? “_You kinda sound like Hanamiya.”

Shintarou looked disgusted at the comparison. “First and foremost. Don’t ever say anything that disturbing again. Secondly. You shouldn’t take things at face value like that.” The _especially not in a killing game_ went unsaid.

“Well, we’re friends, Shin-chan,” Kazunari rolled his eyes. So many here were intent on making themselves so unnecessarily aggressive or suspicious, or _both_ . Why couldn’t they just relax? “If you say that’s why you got the name, then of course I’m gonna believe you.”

He didn’t know it was possible for Shintarou to look more astounded than he already did. His mouth opened wordlessly, now looking like Kazunari had begun dissecting the cadaver behind him, which he _was_ kind of tempted to do in all fairness. “Am I a mirror? How long are you gonna stare at me, Shin-chan?” He joked.

Finally, after _continuing_ to stare at him for a while even after that comment, in which Kazunari dropped the cork on Shintarou’s cadaver’s hand, snickering when it fell right off. That broke his stupor, pushing his glasses up with a scoff. “You’re an idiot.”

“How dare you,” Kazunari gasped. “I’ll have you know all 3 of my brain cells are at work today. You’d _think_ a doctor would realize that.”

“That doesn’t make sense whatsoever!”

”Are you finally gonna give me that cadaver lesson? You’re not getting out of that, Shintarou.”

”Don’t call me that-“

”Okay, Shin-chan.”

”Are you eight? Truly, you’re nearly as much of a child as Murasakibara or Aomine!”

But even as they bickered—mostly Shintarou becoming steadily more annoyed and Kazunari laughing at him and continuing to poke the bear—Kazunari can’t help but feel like his act of trust brought them that much closer. Even if he wasn’t getting those cadaver lessons just yet.

Eventually, Shintarou had enough once the clock hit 10:45, and physically escorted Kazunari out of his room. 

Kazunari was in a great mood. He felt liked he’d built a lot of strong bonds among the islanders. Of course, he’d much rather be making these bonds outside of their captivity, but friendship was friendship. It made him happy nonetheless, and was able to distract him from the motive and killing game at the best of times.

That happiness disappeared quickly, as the elevator doors opened to reveal Hanamiya. The male was smiling already, even before the doors opened, which made him that much more uncomfortable.

“What are you doing here?” Kazunari raised a brow. “Your room isn’t on this floor.”

“Oh, you paid attention to what floor I’m on? I’m flattered. You aren’t on this floor either.” 

He had a solid point. However, something about Hanamiya made him very distrustful. Probably because he spent his time instigating and hurt Kiyoshi. He wanted to give everyone benefit of the doubt, but Hanamiya made it very, very difficult. 

“Well?” Hanamiya was holding the elevator doors from closing, staring at Kazunari with an odd look in his eyes. “Are you planning on staying here?”

He considered his options carefully. He used his hawk eye to look around—Hanamiya didn’t have a knife, or any other weapon, at least not in an easily accessible place. He also had no reason to believe Hanamiya would attack him in particular, but he was unpredictable. He usually wants to believe in people, but Hanamiya wasn’t his friend. They were strained acquaintances at most. 

_He’s skinny as hell_ , Kazunari thought reasonably, relaxing slightly. _A gust of wind would knock him away_.

Kazunari edged forward, staying close to the wall just in case, keeping eye contact the whole time. 

Nothing happened. He walked into the elevator, pressed his floor and was on his merry way.

Just before the doors closed, Hanamiya smiled, reminding him of a wildcat finally upon its prey, wiggling his fingers in a faux wave. “Goodbye, little birdie~” 

Kazunari could not possibly describe the deep twinge of fear that ran through him.

He woke up with the oddest feeling. He didn’t know why. The air felt like it was electrified, ready to snap. His gut told him that there was something _very_ wrong. 

He laid in bed after Zone’s typical morning announcement, hoping for the feeling to melt off in the heat before he left his room. The island’s whole atmosphere made him jittery anyways—he didn’t need whatever it was that washed over him to add. 

He remained there calmly, taking deep breaths and hoping for his head to clear soon. While they never said anything about breakfast meetings being mandatory, it had become routine at this point. A way to check on everyone once a day.  So when he hears the announcement not even 5 minutes later, his heart stops. There’s an irritating school chime, and then-

“Yay! A body has been discovered everyone, please make your way to the plaza.”

His breath hitches. His body feels stuck to the bed, wholly unprocessing. A body? Did a body get washed up shore, from some poor sailor who went overboard? Surely that had to be it. Even though he had thought about it, there was no way someone actually...  actually ...

The doorbell rang. He shot up, feet moving without his mind catching up, and he yanks the door open roughly.

It’s Tetsuya, clutching onto his handbook with a whitened grip.

“Did...” Kazunari started off, not knowing what to ask but the point got across.

“I haven’t been there yet,” Tetsuya sighed, brows pulled together harshly. The most emotion displayed so outwardly. “But I looked out of the window and saw him.” 

_And you came here first?_ Kazunari almost asked, but is too shell shocked to start teasing. “Who?”

Tetsuya doesn’t answer, merely clenching his fists and signaling for Kazunari to follow, which he does in a daze. 

Had someone seriously killed to protect their secret? Taken away a life, just for that? He felt sick at the mere thought.

The sun has crested the horizon, shining bright on the plaza and all among it. It’s impossible to miss, as the crowd nearly parts straight down the middle, ready for anyone to see whether they wanted to or not.

Crudely sat up in a chair, as if he were about to lead a powwow, directly in front of the basketball statue standing ominously behind his body,  head bloody with eyes half open yet looking at nothing, was the body of Kiyoshi Teppei.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyyy the killing game has begun !
> 
> any early guesses on who the killer is?

**Author's Note:**

> aaa damn i’m rlly doing this,,
> 
> i’m excited to share this!! pls take my characterization w a grain of salt?? i’m tryna deal w them all not knowing each other + w how long it’s been since i’ve watched the damn show lmaooo 
> 
> pls lemme know how it’s going thus far? and also comment to lmk who you want kazu to spend free time events with !
> 
> ((title from mama’s gun by glass animals :))


End file.
